Posts tagged Apple
Mobile app market set to boom! But will it generate marketing revenues?
Mar 18th
Mobile app downloads are expected to increase from more than 7bn downloads in 2009 to almost 50bn in 2012, according to a new report from Chetan Sharma Consulting. The figures mean that app downloads will overtake CD downloads, but what’s in it for marketers?
The Chetan Sharma Consulting study, commissioned by app store Getjar, forecasts that the global mobile application economy will be worth $17.5bn by 2012.
The study also highlights that initially, the focus of making revenue from apps was based on paid downloads or subscription-based models. This however, is about to change.
Today, advertising-based revenue accounts for about 12% of app revenue, but by 2012 this figure is expected to rise to 28%.
It’s no wonder that Google has looked to cash in n the market. Its Android smartphone market now has over 30,000 available apps. This is way behind the Apple App Stores 100,000 applications - but then 30,000 applications is not a small number.
The price of mobile applications ranges from $0.99 to $999 but the average selling price in 2009 was about $1.90, the study says.
Over the next three years this is predicted to decrease by 29% and apps will get cheaper; however, advertising revenue derived from apps is likely to stay relatively flat.
More good news for the Android though, advertising revenue is predicted to be even bigger than revenues from paid app downloads.
By 2012, so-called “offdeck” apps that are offered independently from a carrier will be the biggest revenue generator, accounting for almost 50% of all app revenue.
By comparison, in 2009, apps available from mobile operators still accounted for more than 60% of all app revenue, but this will fall to just under 23% by 2012.
So who’s ahead in the game?
Easy: Apple. But Google is gaining some ground.
Despite mobile analytics company Flurry revealing that sales of Google’s Nexus One have so far been “disappointing”, if you add the total sales units for the Nexus One and Droid, Google is beating Apple.
The Nexus One sold a mere 135,000 units compared to Motorola Droid’s 1.05 million and Apple iPhone 3GS’ 1 million, since January.
Chetan says that the mobile app market will continue to grow “exponentially” as mobile devices become as powerful as computers, and wireless networks deliver consistently higher bandwidths.
Apple makes a splash with product placement
Mar 10th
The UK government has confirmed on various occasions in various proposals that it will eventually allow product placement on British TV to provide a new revenue stream for beleaguered commercial broadcasters – the time to move on this is now, as Apple as proved.
Last year, the Apple brand dominated the product placement industry with the tech giant appearing in 18 of the 44 films that topped the box office last year including Drag Me to Hell, Orphan, The Hurt Locker and Funny People.
The statistic excludes several other Apple product placements in movies that did not top the box office – Apple really is everywhere and it’s clearly a brand that’s willing to pay big bucks. So when can the UK expect to see some of that dosh?
Italy’s government approved a decree that allows product placement on TV earlier this month. Its decision is expected to benefit Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset broadcaster and at the same time lowers the amount of advertising that pay TV players can broadcast begging the question: will product placement replace traditional TV advertising?
With more and more TV shows being watched and downloaded via the internet, product placement looks to be the silver bullet to lost revenues and a sure fire way to get your brand into the hands and infront of cosumers on the go.
Brand analysis firm Margaux Matrix estimated last month that product placement on Coronation Street could be worth up to £330,000 per week to broadcaster ITV.
Placing point-of-sale and poster advertising in key locations around the set of the show is estimated at being worth a further £230,000 on average across the episodes.
Margaux Matrix also said that if alcohol product placement was permitted it would bring in a possible £181,000 a week, representing an additional annual income of over £9 million.
This is clearly a market waiting to be exploited, as demonstrated by such brands as Apple already.
Demand for iPad higher than it was for the iPhone. Price or curiosity?
Feb 26th
There is more demand for Apple’s forthcoming iPad then there ever was the iPhone, according to new research.
Is this surprising? Yes. Why? Because all the reports that were flowing out of newsrooms immediately after Steve Jobs introduced the new product where negative.
“It doesn’t have this…it doesn’t have that…” Bla bla. The critics were wrong. People still want the iPad.
As I have said before, consumers are curious about Apple. It seems to be able to do no wrong and what the bloody hell would you want a camera on a tablet computer for anyway? Research has backed me up:
A new survey from RBC/ChangeWave reveals that 13% of consumers were either somewhat or very likely to purchase the iPad, compared with the 9% who gave the same reply for the original iPhone in a similar survey conducted prior to its launch.
Mike Abramsky, RBC analyst, said that while he does not expect feverish initial launch lines such as the iPhone attracted, “the data portends well for healthy initial iPad uptake.”
The reason?
The iPad’s unexpectedly low price point – starting at $US499.
Only 8% appear unwilling to pay Apple’s indicated iPad prices, according to the survey, that well below 28% who balked at initial iPhone pricing.
But perhaps the high demand is also due to people’s curiosity over what exactly the iPad will do and how it will enrich their lives. Tablets have been around for years, so why all the hype now?
Consumers have been told that not only will the iPad change the way we consumer media, it will revolutionise our use of the internet…of how we use technology! It will make our lives easier and I guess you’d be crazy not to buy into that when it’s for such a low price.
Top planned uses for the device among buyers includes surfing the internet (68%), checking e-mail (44%), and reading e-books (37%).
The iPad may have greater potential than first touted and gives further weight to Apple’s predictions that the iPad will be in the hands of more than 10 million consumers by the end of the year.
Better fix those censorship rules then guys.
How to target men using fashionable technology
Feb 23rd
What’s the best way to market the latest technology? Make it look fashionable of course.
The excitement of Apple’s new iPad set many hearts a-flutter. Financially, it is predicted to be another Apple money spinner.
Industry analysts Gartner Research expect the iPad to inject rocket fuel into the sleepy tablet PC market once it actually goes on sale at the end of March, boosting tablet sales from 1 to 9 million by the end of the year.
But how many so-called gadget fans are really in it for the technology? Are some more concerned with image over function, perhaps ageing Baby Boomers wanting trendy gadgets to stave off looking middle aged?
A survey of over 500 users by global news website OneNewsPage asked if some gadgets such as iPhones and Playstations look inappropriate in the hands of older consumers.
It’s worth noting that most who took part in OneNewsPage’s survey were strongly into their technology.
Forty four per cent of respondents claimed they ‘always’ buy the latest gadgets as soon as they go on sale.
But it was a close contest on the question of age. Fifty two per cent agreed that keeping up with latest gadgets is a sign of desperation, while 48% disagreed.
Over half (55%) felt gadgets were like clothes, and consumers needed to buy the right ones for their age.
Indeed, 63% felt that once a person turns 40, no gadget is ever going to make them look ‘cool’.
The survey found that 44% agreed with the statement that people over 40 on a Playstation was “plain wrong”. And 40% felt similarly about the over 40s using iPhones.
Meanwhile, research from Microsoft Advertising has laid bare the depth of British men’s love affair with technology.
The report, entitled ‘PFM Unplugged’, reveals that the UK’s Pre-Family Men (PFM) – young males who have completed their education but not yet started a family – are heavily engaged in technology and always online.
PFM are interacting with technology in some way during every waking hour (anyone who has a boyfriend knows that). They are the first generation to have grown up with the internet, and with the majority (99%) claiming to go online either every day or nearly every day and half using their mobile phones to do so.
The research shows that they are increasingly reliant on the Internet for entertainment, information and communication, with 80% going so far as to state that they would be lost without it.
In fact, the internet is the technology 57% of PFM are most attached to, closely followed by mobile phones (49%) and TV (46%).
PFM are apparently never ‘doing nothing’, and even downtime is filled by some activity, more often than not facilitated by technology. It’s also often also the first thing they think about when they wake up with a quarter of PFM admitting to checking their email and 18% looking at social networking sites on their mobile phone before they get out of bed in the morning.
Despite the popularity of social networks and the perception that traditional social email is dying, email remains the most valued online tool amongst PFM, with 52% of respondents rating it above all others (compared with 25% for search and 12% for social networking sites) and 87% stating their use of email had stayed the same or increased over the last year. 94% use email at least once per day, compared with 60% that go on to a social network.
Technology is fuelling the blurring of work and play as modes of behaviour overlap. While 43% of the men surveyed admitted occasionally browsing the internet during afternoons at work, PFM is also checking his work email in the evenings, on his way to and from work and before he gets out of bed in the morning.
Online video content is an important source of entertainment for PFM and it’s no longer just limited to short clips- 73% of PFMs will watch video-on-demand (VOD) at least once a week with nearly half watching full length TV programs. Catching up on TV shows they’ve missed and watching archive shows were the main drivers to viewing online and the majority (59%) viewed on a laptop.
The ‘PFM Unplugged’ report from Microsoft Advertising also provides advertisers with a series of recommendations on how they may reach and engage with PFM based on the insights uncovered in the research. You can download it here.
Too sexy for Apple?
Feb 22nd
Believe it or not but Apple has finally got something wrong, upsetting customers - and no, I’m not talking about the iPad.
Apple has begun enforcing stricter policies around apps available from its app store in a move that could see some apps removed entirely.
While the tech giant has so far only removed adult-themed apps, some games have also been removed.
Techcrunch reports that no more applications with “overtly sexual content” will be allowed, however, the criteria in which apps on the Apple store will be measured remain unclear.
The policy is expected to alarm some developers, and like other attempts to censor internet content, could see some apps banned for no reason at all - or at least in a case of misunderstanding (think of how in India you can’t look up ‘sex discrimination laws’ because the search term ‘sex’ is banned.
The news has already prompted many scathing opinions and blog posts on Mac enthusiasts sites such as cultofmac.com and 9to5mac.com. Blog posts on the sites are warning developers to make sure they don’t feature any “sexy women in apps” deeming the bans “ridiculous”.
The pulling of apps is in response to what is being dubbed as “sexy apps”, which also includes porn.
The move comes at a rather convenient time, with many touting that the clean-up attempt is to ready the market for its iPad, which is due to hit stores next month.
The iPad is expected to be popular with schools - carrying textbooks.
It seems that no medium is safe from censorship these days. And it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For years, the internet has known no or little inhibitions - there were no clear boundaries and anything and everything was available for download. We called it freedom. And until the internet giants got on board with censoring content available through their sites, there was no way to apply any laws on the world wide web as it isn’t confined to any one jurisdiction.
But the question is now, how much power should these ‘internet giants’ have over what content can and can’t be seen - and furthermore, what is too “sexy”?
Windows Phone 7 – in detail
Feb 15th
Following reports yesterday that Microsoft was to launch a challenger to the smartphone market currently dominated by Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Andriod and RIM’s Blackberry, the tech giant has unveiled the details of its closely kept mobile secret.
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft showed off Windows Phone 7 for the first time. The handset will pull together content from social networking sites and other web services on a scale unseen on competing platforms and will most likely pose a serious threat to its competitors RIM, Apple and Google.
Why?
It’s flashy and new and has been designed with the user in mind, making all those things we use our mobile for more accessible, easier to use and to navigate.
Previous Windows Mobile versions were scrapped to make way for a completely new design that integrates Microsoft’s Zune music player and the Xbox Live gaming service.
The tech giant is ready to hit the smartphone market big time and has already secured partners including Samsung, HTC, HP, Sony Ericsson, Dell, LG and Toshiba.
At the Windows Phone 7 unveiling, Joe Belfiore, VP for Microsoft’s Windows Phone division, said the explosion of applications and web services available on mobile phones meant devices had become far too complex claiming that that phones had started to resemble PCs but “a phone’s just not a PC – it’s a smaller, more intimate device”.
Microsoft wanted a smart design that would separate applications and bring together some of the key things that are most important to people.
It’s five key hubs, that feature on a completely new interface with a ‘start’ page based around live ‘tiles’ representing the most common tasks include people, pictures, office, music + video and games.
The ‘people’ tile is all of a users contacts from Outlook, social networking sites and web mail services – pulled together with thumbnail images into one interface. People the user has recently communicated with rise to the top and for each contact the phone can display their recent activity on various social networking sites.
Under the ‘pictures’ tile is all of the users photos taken with the phone, synced from a PC or uploaded to social networking sites. Photos uploaded by friends to their social media profiles can also be accessed.
The Office’ tile is pretty self-explanatory, it allows users to view and edit documents or make voice, text and picture notes.
Every Windows Phone 7 will essentially be a Zune music player, with users able to sync music and videos using PC software similar to iTunes under the ‘music + video’ tile. Third-party music and video applications such as Pandora are also integrated.
Lastly, finally finding a way to take Xbox to the next level, under the ‘games’ tile users will be able to play games against other Xbox Live users.
Microsoft has said a key priority with the new operating system was maintaining consistency in design. Each Windows Phone 7 device will have three buttons on the front - Start, Search and Back. The tile menu interface will also be virtually the same on all handsets.
The built-in calendar pulls together appointments from both web-based personal calendars and from Microsoft Exchange, while addresses and phone numbers are automatically hyperlinked. Clicking on an address brings it up on Bing Maps.
The maps feature is interesting, and will be a major competitor to Google Maps. By simply typing “sushi” into the search function – which is of course powered by Bing – the user is shown all of the sushi restaurants in the immediate area plotted on a map. From that screen the user can get directions, ring a restaurant or read reviews.
The web browser is based around the same code as the desktop Internet Explorer, and there is full support for multi-touch gestures such as pinching to zoom. But just like the iPhone, Adobe Flash support won’t be present at launch.
So that’s it. It all looks pretty simple to use, and smart too. But one burning question remains: what about apps?
With the actual launch to consumers still so far away, Microsoft said it would reveal more details about the applications that will be available on the platform at its Remix conference later this year.
Is Microsoft cool enough to have its own mobile phone?
Feb 15th
It’s Mobile World Congress this week and the perfect time for new players to enter the market. But can tech giant Microsoft pull it off?
Do you remember the days when software and technology companies would only really offer one product, but that product would actually be really good? Everyone would have it and it just became the norm. Microsoft loved those days, the days before it had so many competitors, days when it didn’t have to ‘cool’, it was just geeky.
Now, brand is more important than ever, and even more important for companies is that they now need to be seen with their fingers in many pies - that they’re down with the kids.
Microsoft will this week unveil the Microsoft Windows 7 for Mobile operating system, but what’s even more interesting is it will also be unveiling Windows 7 Mobile handsets.
Microsoft has been pretty busy these past couple of years - busy competing that is.
You have to remember that Microsoft could once do no wrong. It’s products weren’t very sexy but they certainly made our lives easier. But the company perhaps become a little complacent, it took its eyes off the ball and started building Xbox.
Then it had to play catch-up, that’s what Zune was all about. Bing is more about looking for other revenue streams while it watches Apple steal away customers (although Microsoft still has a ninety-something share of the OS market, people are switching because Apple is cooler).
So now it is building a mobile phone. This is perhaps Microsoft’s last chance to really hit the market place big time and offer something unique that will finally set it aside from it’s competitors such as Google and Apple.
The phone, which looks similar to a Blackberry, will have to be a ‘must have’ item. But will it be hot and sexy enough to attract consumers to camp out at mobile phone retailers to be first to have one?
Microsoft’s decision to enter the mobile phone market reflects a broader push inside the company to bring a bigger element of ‘cool’ to its brand - which is usually known as ‘functional’ (I am here reminded of those Window 7 ads…there was no one cool in those, just people functioning, often stupidly).
But it’ll have to go some way to convince consumers.
Microsoft’s early lead in smartphone software was built on its strong practical appeal to corporate IT departments, which wanted to move applications they had developed for other Windows operating systems on to mobile handsets.
It’s popular with the geeks - but even they are losing interest. The company’s share of the smartphone business has withered as consumers have turned to cooler handsets and often kept these for work as well.
According to comScore, Microsoft’s share of smartphone software had slipped to 18% in the US in the final quarter of last year, while Apple’s iPhone claimed 25% of the market.
There certainly is a lot of ground to catch up on for Microsoft. The handset won’t just have to ‘wow’ consumers, it’ll have to shock them. And the ad campaign will have to be a hell of a lot better than those Windows 7 ads.
Will a lack of understanding deter marketers from taking advantage of Apple’s iPad?
Feb 8th
An online survey conducted by YouGov in the days following the launch of Apple’s iPad shows that awareness of the product is high but that there remains some confusion about its features and capabilities. Will this stop marketers from getting on board?
While 70% that were shown an image and provided with a brief description of the Apple iPad claimed to have heard about it, which is good news. But many were unsure of how to approach the new product and what they would use it for.
A large majority of respondents recognized that the iPad can send and receive emails (68%) and that it can connect to the internet via wifi (65%).
The e-reader capabilities of the product are also well recognized with almost two thirds (64%) of respondents expecting to be able to read electronics books and magazines on it.
Apple is famous for its lack of advertising and marketing activities in the lead up to the launch of its new products. It creates hype and buzz without ever confirming what it is doing, which in the past has been hailed by marketers. But this time, it could actually hurt Apple.
Marek Vaygelt, Head of Technology and Telecoms Consulting at YouGov points out that misunderstanding of the iPad’s operating system capabilities is greater among existing Apple customers.
He said that “Apple customers who own three or more Apple products have a very high awareness of the iPad but are way more likely than the population as a whole to believe it has a multi-tasking operating system. While this is a software rather than a hardware feature it suggests Apple’s core market might want to wait for an upgraded version.”
Despite this misunderstanding, while 7% of the survey’s respondents believe they will probably or definitely buy an Apple iPad, 23% of owners of three or more Apple products believe that they will definitely do so.
With 40% of British adults owning at least one Apple product, YouGov estimates that the vast majority of Apple iPad sales will come from existing Apple customers with iPhone and Apple iMac customers the most likely purchasers.
The company has done well to ensure it has a following of loyal brand advocates but will it be enough to guarantee the success of the iPad?
Perhaps what will really sell the iPad to new consumers is the apps that will be available. The only problem now however, is that no one has come up with anything compelling enough to capture the imagination of potential users.
It’s an open platform for marketers though, and we’re eagerly awaiting to see what they can come up with.
72m read their news online. Will advertisers stick around after pay walls though?
Feb 4th
Guess what? Newspapers and online media sites aren’t dead. And what does that mean, marketers will be coming back to them in droves over the next few month, but will pay walls see a decline in the numbers?
Newspaper websites in the US have attracted an average monthly unique audience of 72 million visitors in the fourth quarter of 2009, representing 37% of internet users, according to new figures from Nielsen Online.
Newspaper websites users generated more than 3.2 billion page views during the quarter, spending more than 2.4 billion minutes sites.
The results come as News Corp reports a net profit of $254m for 2009. It’s CEO – Rupert Murdoch, who is the main voice behind the push for pay walls by the year 2011 on major newspaper websites – said that “content is not just king but the emperor of all things electronic,” reassuring advertisers that consumers “will pay for content”.
So the world is going digital, this is not news. What is interesting to note though is how multiplatform the media industry has become and the variety that advertisers are now presented with.
Furthermore, with online newspaper figures so positive, it brings further confidence to the market that devices such as the Amazon Kindle and Apple’s iPad will be able to succeed.
As the economy begins to stabilize, newspaper companies are in position to leverage their trusted brands to reach a highly engaged audience and deliver maximum value to advertisers, according to Newspaper Association of America.
News Corp will be announcing within two months its model for charging for the online content of the New York Post, Times of London and all its other newspapers.
While today’s Nielsen figures sound impressively up 5.5%, it is still not known if advertisers will be willing to pay to have their ads behind paid-for content given the negative reactions from readers.
Asked what they would do if their favorite news site suddenly began charging, 74% of online news readers said they would “find another free site,” according to a Harris Interactive study commissioned by PaidContent UK. Only 5% said they’d pay to continue reading for fee.
The debate continues…
Augmented Reality is no longer science fiction, it’s your new digital strategy
Feb 2nd
Augmented Reality holds potential for a wide range of industrial and consumer uses, but marketing projects are one of the few areas where augmented reality tech companies are doing steady business today.
The market for Augmented Reality (AR) services is expected to reach $732 million by 2014, with revenues derived from a combination of paid-for app downloads, subscription based services and advertising, according to research from Juniper.
Marketers are increasingly trying out the new technology in an effort to make deeper connections with consumers, but is augmented reality really the next big thing?
AR may still not be at the forefront of the digital strategy, however, with the upcoming launch of the iPad this new medium could become more commonplace sooner rather than later.
Although initial service adoption will be driven by AR location-based search, Juniper Research expects the first substantial revenues to be derived from AR-enabled games, bolstered by revenues from mobile solutions from 2012-3 onwards.
AR is expected to be increasingly attractive to advertisers and brands as AR ad networks will be able to charge higher CPC and CPM rates because of location relevance.
But what will make AR so attractive to consumers?
According to Niall Cook of Hill and Knowlton getting people to think about a physical object (reality) and data about it (or data about that data) that could exist online are the two core components of AR.
He says that the technology will do a number of things:
– Provide the user with a way of capturing the object
– Recognise the object
– Search for the relevant data about the object
– Display the data in a way that augments the physical representation
Visuals are an important part of advertising, so it’s not surprising that so many companies have jumped on the AR bandwagon, offering tools that visualise their products in a magical and memorable way.
AR is already a reality in the US with consumer brands such as Kia Motors, Nestlé, and Frito-Lay all experimenting with campaigns.
The hope for marketers now is that it will engage an audience more deeply than other forms of social media, such as viral videos, fan pages on Facebook, or Twitter followings.
Is AR part of your digital strategy? We can’t wait to see what brands come up with.
Recent Comments