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56% of U.S. households own a current video game console

 

Over the last year, the total time spent playing video games increased 7% and purchases of digital content and subscriptions rose 8% according to a study from Nielsen. Over half of all households, 56%, owned at least one current-generation gaming console as of January 2012, an increase from 50% in 2011. Mobile, handheld and tablet gaming continues to grow as well, with 66% of households with kids between 6 and 12 years old owning a Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, while also owning an iOS device. More adults ages 25 through 34 play games on Android devices than on iOS devices, but iOS gaming is evenly distributed across the various age groups covered by the study. As for next-generation game consoles, four out of five gamers who own current-generation systems are interested in a future console.

 

Source: BGR

More than 100 million smartphone users now in U.S.

Market research firm comScore on Tuesday released the results of a three-month study on the U.S. mobile phone industry. Android and iOS continued to grow between November and January, gaining 2.3% and 1.4% respectively. Google’s mobile platform topped the charts with a total market share of 48.6%, while Apple managed to capture a 29.5% share. Research in Motion and Microsoft, however, continued to tumble, falling 2% and 1% in the same period. After surveying more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers, comScore found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer with a 25.4% market share. The company was followed by LG with a 19.7% share, Motorola with 13.2%, Apple with 12.8% and RIM with a 6.6% share. The research firm also found that the number of U.S. smartphone subscribers increased 13% since October and surpassed 100 million users for a total of 101.3 million. ComScore’s press release follows below.

 

Source: BGR

NFC mobile payments to hit $74B by 2015

Near-field communications (NFC) payments are off to a slow start here in the U.S., but Juniper Research believes that they will reach a whopping $74 billion by 2015, and in the process will help to spur on the mobile payments revolution.

“Our report demonstrates the spectacular growth we see across all segments of the mobile commerce market,” Juniper’s David Snow, and the author of the Mobile Commerce Markets predicting the NFC explosion, said in a statement today. “Four of these segments (money transfer, physical goods, NFC and coupons) will more than triple in transaction value over the next three years, whilst digital goods, banking and tickets will still on average, double over the same period.”

The figure adds some granularity to Juniper’s past prediction of the mobile payment market totaling $670 billion by 2015. Juniper’s prediction on NFC is a sign that the technology won’t end up dominating the mobile payment market as some would hope — the mobile payments firm Isis and Google Wallet are both banking heavily on NFC.

NFC was initially the hot topic for mobile payments, but with so many other methods of payments available, including SMS, carrier billing, and QR code scanning, it’s now being approached as just one tool among many for mobilizing purchasing.

Juniper also notes that SMS will help to spur on banking, something that’s already happening in several countries throughout Africa. The report also indicates that mobile coupons area will see the highest growth during the next few years, even though it’s the smallest mobile commerce segment right now.

Source: V.B

Mozilla and Yahoo over-promise on mobile

 

Mozilla unveiled a plan last week to build a better mobile platform, attempting to leverage its expertise in Web browsers to compete with Android’s and iOS’ giant 77% market share. The program, dubbed “Boot to Gecko” and announced at the big Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, promises developers a new way to deploy applications to mobile using their existing Web-development skills. In essence, Mozilla is looking to make mobile app development more accessible to existing Web developers. Similarly, Yahoo announced its Web-standards based application platform called “Yahoo Cocktails.”

Both organizations are building mobile application development and deployment platforms based on recent advancements in HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS – technologies that development teams and CIOs can use without either Mozilla’s or Yahoo’s input. While the hype around these platforms may sound compelling, both platforms have a very long way to go to solve real-world mobile application challenges. For example: How do we build a mobile app that integrates with our ERP, creates a good customer impression, is available on multiple devices, does not paint us into a technological corner, and does not break the bank?

The truth is, the decisions technology leaders have to make now are much more dynamic than they were just five years ago.  Back then, we were all discussing the impending convergence of platforms. Our difficult decisions were about what browser version to support or whether we should build our web applications using Flash.

Today, we have not realized the promise of convergence and are actually witnessing the opposite. The reality is a divergence of platforms and devices, along with the giants of the tech industry clamoring for us to use their development tools and deployment platforms.

The largest issue with creating mobile applications is that the ecosystem these applications have to live within is not simple, but rather very complex. There are no good choices for enterprises needing to build across devices. Ironically, the world was a simpler place for developers when Microsoft owned 98% of the market.  There are many variables in choosing an application framework, including:

  • What are the features of the application that need native device support?
  • What programming skills do we currently have in-house?
  • How many different devices will we need to support now? How many tomorrow?
  • How consistent will the app need to be with our mobile web experience or with our other digital touch-points?
  • Where do we place bets on the future?
  • How complex is the application we are trying to build?
  • How often will we need to update the app?
  • How integrated will the app need to be with our existing IT infrastructure?
  • How important is it to be able to innovate on the user experience?

The potential of Yahoo’s and Mozilla’s efforts are exciting– as well as those of Adobe, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and the open source communities.  But there is still a long way to go before we that promise turns into actual working enterprise software. For now, at least, we are all stuck with incomplete ”new” technologies like HTML5 or developing in yesterday’s HTML, or building multiple versions of the same app in different technologies.  Perhaps one day, as an industry, we’ll finally fulfill that ideal of platform convergence while being able to respond to consumer divergence.

 

Source: V.B

HTC’s struggles continue, revenue plummeted 45% so far this year

 

HTC’s revenue during the first two months of 2012 has plummeted 45% compared to the same period last year. The popular vendor on Tuesday published its unaudited results for February 2012, during which it pulled in an estimated NT$20.3 billion, down 37% from the NT$32.1 billion it earned in the same month a year earlier. HTC’s revenue so far this year totals approximately NT$36.9 billion, a 45% drop-off from the NT$67.1 billion it pulled in between January and February in 2011. HTC had previously lowered its guidance for the first quarter of 2012, and business isn’t expected to pick up until the Taiwan-based vendor releases its next-generation flagship Android phones, the One X, One S and One V in April. HTC’s February earnings release follows below.

Source: BGR

How Google Play stacks up against iTunes & iCloud

 

On the eve of Apple’s much-hyped iPad HD event, Google has fired a shot right at Apple when it comes to media with its new Google Play store.

Google Play will smartly combine all of Google’s other stores like the Android Market and Google Music into one cloud-based marketplace for all media needs. Just like iTunes,

Google Play will be consumers’ one-stop shop for movies, games, music, apps, and more.

And similar to Apple’s iCloud (and Amazon for that matter), Google says Play will ensure that all your purchased media is backed up so you don’t have to worry about losing

those files again. You can re-download your files across all platforms if you ever move or lose them. Plus, you’ll be able to store up to 20,000 songs for free, a feature borrowed from the departed Google Music.

However, iCloud also offers more in the way of dealing with your already-owned music with its iTunes Match service. With it, you can listen your already owned music from other sources across your iOS devices.

 

From playing with Google Play today, it appears to offer a relatively smooth experience for browsing and buying media. Unlike iTunes, Play is completely accessible through the browser instead of through a locally-stored program. After toying around with it, I wish there was a way to browse and buy media from Apple through the browser as well.

As for selection itself, Apple is still chiefly king with iTunes, especially when it comes to music. Every mainstream artist and most independent artists make it a priority to have their music on iTunes but not Google. As Google Play evolves and becomes known as the destination for media on Android devices especially, it could eventually catch up to iTunes.

When it comes to music pricing, Play appears to offer downloads at the same price or slightly cheaper than iTunes. Popular albums Talk That Talk (Deluxe Edition) by Rihanna and Jay-Z/Kanye West’s Watch the Throne were both slightly cheaper from Google. For movies, Google Play offers just movie rentals, whereas iTunes offers rentals and digital purchases. Movie rentals appear to cost about the same using both services.

We’d encourage you to give Google Play a spin as well. Let us know in the comments if you like it and how you think it stacks up to iTunes.

Source: V.B

Apple’s App Store surpasses 25B downloads

Apple’s popular iOS App Store has now topped 25 billion downloads, a sign that mobile device owners are still hungry for well-built native applications.

On Apple’s site, the company has highlighted the achievement with a page that says: “A billion thanks. 25 times over.” The company had been promoting a contest where the person who broke the new milestone would win a $10,000 iTunes gift card. The milestone was broken some time in the past few days. Apple held a similar contest in Jan. 2011 when the company hit 10 billion App Store downloads.

While there have been persistent arguments about how well native mobile applications would fare against surging HTML5 development, at least when it comes to Apple, consumers are still plainly in love with native apps. Social networking apps like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter are especially popular for iOS, as well as casual games like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Fruit Ninja, and Where’s My Water?.

VentureBeat contributor and CBS Interactive CTO Peter Yared recently summed up the current state of the conflict between native and HTML5 well, saying: “While HTML5 has come a long way, it is still not up to par with the native app experience. Some publishers, such as the Financial Times and Playboy, have come close to native app functionality by investing heavily in HTML5 in order to bypass Apple’s 30 percent app store subscription fee. However, there are no turnkey JavaScript libraries that provide functionality such as efficient swiping and offline reading.”

What apps for the App Store have you been enjoying most lately?

DEMO Asia 2012 Featuring 76 Tech Startups including Appota

The inaugural Asian edition of the popular DEMO tech event will take place tomorrow, February 29 2012 at Matrix @ Biopolis in Singapore. DEMO is one of the most popular technology showcasing events in the world. Specifically, DEMO Asia provides a “launch pad for companies throughout the world hoping to launch in the Asian marketplace.”

A total of 44 Asian startups hand-selected to launch their products at the upcoming event, and 32 alpha stage companies will also pitch their products. Products range from cloud & enterprise technologies to social media to mobile and web. These startups come are from Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Mongolia, and Canada (see diagram below). At the Pavilion, there will be 120 companies showcasing their products, including DEMO Alumni like GoToCamera, ShowUHow, VidQuik, and Zirtu.

Startups at DEMO Asia 2012, by country

In the past five years, DEMO companies have raised over $4.5 billion after their debut at DEMO, according to the organizer. More than 50 companies have been acquired by tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec, Yahoo!, and Cisco.

See conference agenda here. Reserve your seats for DEMO Asia 2012. Use this Promotional Code to get discount off ticket price: GRE67M

UPDATE:

List of companies who will launch their products at DEMO Asia 2012:

  1. 2359 Media Pte Ltd
  2. 3D International Pte Ltd
  3. 9Degrees Freedom
  4. Asial Corporation
  5. BCZ.com
  6. Business.me
  7. CellSievo Pte Ltd
  8. DROP ICON
  9. Dropmysite
  10. Epsilon Mobile Pte Ltd
  11. Evvolution Technologies Pte Ltd
  12. Fitness-Buffet
  13. FlexiRoam Sdn Bhd
  14. GClue
  15. George Mobile
  16. GreenPost
  17. Handsake Pictures
  18. Heyawanna Labs
  19. Hoiio API
  20. Hoiio Live
  21. Innova Technology
  22. Lobang Club
  23. MeSixty Sdn Bhd
  24. Mobilewalla
  25. Nundino
  26. Oceans Inc.
  27. Pixtelz
  28. Qooco
  29. Reventive, Inc.
  30. Rival Edge Pte Ltd
  31. Sageby Pte Ltd
  32. seQme Sdn Bhd
  33. Socialico Pte Ltd
  34. Soulshell Pte Ltd
  35. Splaype Pte Ltd
  36. Squiryl
  37. Studio Ousia Inc.
  38. Teamie Pte Ltd
  39. Tera-Barrier Films Pte Ltd
  40. Thatz International Pte Ltd
  41. Tradesparq
  42. VitalsTrak Pte Ltd
  43. Urban Look Pte Ltd
  44. Wildfire Pte Ltd

Alpha Pitch Companies

 

  1. AfterShip
  2. Agate Studio
  3. Appota.com
  4. Burpple Pte Ltd
  5. Coworkify
  6. CTRL Works Pte Ltd
  7. DocuBuzz Pte Ltd
  8. FIETT Pte Ltd
  9. GIO Software Co. Ltd
  10. HobbyMash
  11. Intraix Solutions
  12. iTwin
  13. LyRex
  14. MyManisku Pte Ltd
  15. OOSome
  16. Play Moolah Pte Ltd
  17. Rofarez Solutions Sdn Bhd
  18. Semantic3
  19. SGK Group
  20. Sheer Industries Group
  21. StyleRocks Pty Ltd
  22. Swordfish
  23. Tapit Media Pty Ltd
  24. Techdrois
  25. TM R&D Sdn Bhd
  26. TranscribeMe
  27. T.WARE Pte Ltd
  28. Ubersnap

Google’s Android OS now seeing a whopping 850K activations per day

 

Google’s incredibly popular Android mobile operating system is now seeing more than 850,000 phone activations every day, writes Google Senior VP Andy Rubin on a company blog today.

“Each and every day, we are humbled by the trajectory of Android and our partners,” Rubin wrote. “With a year-on-year growth rate of more than 250%, 850,000 new Android devices are activated each day, jetting the total number of Android devices around the world past 300 million. These numbers are a testament to the break-neck speed of innovation that defines the Android ecosystem.”

Android has seen so much success because of its open-source nature and its use by various manufacturers including Samsung, Motorola, HTC, and LG. With worldwide availability and ubiquity, the platform is easily the largest in the world, with Apple’s iOS, Nokia’s Symbian OS, the BlackBerry OS, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone firmly behind it in penetration. NDP interestingly pointed out in its latest smartphone report that first-time phone buyers overwhelmingly choose an Android phone over Apple’s iPhone, with 57 percent for Android and 34 percent for iPhone.

On top of Rubin’s figure on how many devices are being activated daily, he also added that the Android Market has crossed the 450,000 app mark. A year ago, that number was sitting 150,000 apps, which indicates staggering application usage and growth. The Android Market is now seeing more than a billion app downloads each month.

Do you think Android’s growth and dominance is sustainable?

Source: V.B

13 ‘Pinteresting’ Facts About Pinterest Users

’s no secret that the Internet loves Pinterest. Now, most users are even spending more time, on average, pinning than they are on hanging out on Facebook. Here’s what you need to know about Pinterest user demographics.

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