Sound and Wearable Tech in Mary Meeker's Annual Internet Trends Report

KPCB Internet Trends 2013 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

I shared the report at the office early yesterday and had several conversations with people about the various sections, even the one about immigration policy -- I happen to be an immigrant, and so was the colleague with whom I ended up discussing the issue.

Technically we are one-percenters (slide 86).

From KPCB's description:

The report reviews the shifting online landscape, which has become more social and content rich, with expanded use of photos, video and audio.
Looking ahead, the report finds early signs of growth for wearable computing devices, like glasses, connected wrist bands and watches - and the emergence of connected cars, drones and other new platforms.

We are starting to see the emergence of sounds, especially in interactive experiences and tools, as well as the smart use of data to first standardize experiences, then personalize them. My take is voice is coming back to phones and tablets (as in text to sound).

The growth of tablets has been astounding, and I can see why.

Although this is not just about iOS devices, the Apple products do take the lion share of the market in at least three important ways:

1. sheer usage
2. customer satisfaction
3. eCommerce transactions

They are the key metrics Apple CEO Tim Cook (see video interview linked below) tracks to understand whether they are shipping the best possible products, and customers are happy.

Many believe we are just scratching the surface on sensor-enabled wearable technologies, and certainly they posses many positive attributes that make it convenient for people to adopt them.

However, they must do and thus be more for people if adoption is to go beyond the tech set. You first have to convince people it's so incredible that they want to wear it, said Cook.

The future of wearable technologies

The topic of the future of wearable technologies came up early on in the one hour plusconversation between Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher and Apple CEO Tim Cook at D11 (remind me not to become a famous tech CEO, she is a formidable interviewer!).

Is the future wearable? Cook's take:

I think so. I wear this. It’s a FuelBand. I think Nike did a great job with this. It’s for a specific area. It’s integrated well with iOS. There are lots of gadgets in this space now.
[As for] the ones that are doing more than one thing, there’s nothing great out there that I’ve seen. There’s nothing that’s going to convince a kid that’s never worn glasses or a band to wear one. So I think there’s lot of things to solve in this space, but it’s an area where it’s ripe for exploration. It’s ripe for us all getting excited about. I think there will be tons of companies playing in this.

I see it as something, as another very key branch of the tree. You think about the post PC era, and we really started talking about this several years ago. I think the iPhone pushed us toward that fast and the tablet accelerated it. I think wearables could be another branch on this.

The whole conversation is worth listening to. They touched upon a number of questions, including recent Apple-related news.

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I'll come back to the Internet Trends report with more thoughts and cross references. For now, I just wanted to highlight what Apple measures in terms of product adoption, and potential direction for the company around wearable technology based upon the answers Cook provided in the interview.

What are your thoughts and reactions?

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How We Spend Our Time on Our Smartphones

We get it already. A lot of people have smartphones. Congratulations.

It’s best now to learn how people are using these phones because as marketers we can’t do much without the understanding of exactly where people are and, more importantly, why they are there.

Experian Marketing Services takes a look at smartphone use in a recent study. Here are a few findings.

It’s almost a little surprising that the ability to talk is still the main reason to have a phone! Texting comes in a close second. What would be interesting to see is how these ratios change in various age groups. I would offer that my teenager stomps on that 58 minute mark and leaves it in the dust on a daily basis.

While an age breakdown isn’t part of this study there is a breakdown of these results between Android devices and iPhones.

So what can we conclude from this? Android owners are ‘chattier’? Not much really but it’s always fun to look at the Android v. iPhones ‘battle’ and then go off on tangents about who is better and why.

We’ll let you do that on your time though. In the meantime, do your habits, or more importantly your customers’ habits, mirror these findings or do they look different?

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Mobile Gaming Market Tops $800 Million in 2010

 AUGUST 18, 2010

Ad support will drive 12.3% of mobile gaming revenues by 2014

Casual gaming on the mobile platform has driven adoption of mobile games to more than a quarter of mobile subscribers and more than one in five members of the US population, eMarketer estimates.
This year, 64 million people will play mobile games at least monthly, a number that will rise to 94.9 million by 2014. eMarketer’s estimates exclude mobile users who play preinstalled games, which offer publishers decent brand exposure but little in the way of monetization opportunities.

 

While games are currently popular on both smartphones and feature phones, the composition of the mobile gaming audience will shift further toward smartphones as they increase in penetration across the population. According to comScore, smartphone gamers now account for 42% of the total. Still, both groups of gamers tend to prefer traditional casual games like Scrabble and Sudoku, though heavier gamers enjoy advanced offerings that are beginning to converge with console games.
eMarketer expects revenues from mobile gaming to reach nearly $850 million this year, with the vast majority coming from paid downloads. By 2014, mobile gaming revenues will top $1.5 billion.

 

Over the same period, ad support will nearly double in importance, accounting for 6.5% of revenues in 2010 and 12.3% of the total in 2014.
That makes for a sizeable mobile gaming market, but mobile still makes up only a small amount of all gaming revenues. According to TNS and Newzoo, just 4% of US video game revenues came from mobile.
Keep your business ahead of the digital curve. Learn more about becoming an eMarketer Total Access client today.
Check out today’s other article, “Web Most Effective Way to Reach Local Audiences Worldwide.”  

Source: http://www.emarketer.com/

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Email, portals stay ahead of social networking—at least on mobile devices

AUGUST 13, 2010

Social networking has become such a staple of online activity in the US that, according to Nielsen, internet users spent more time on social networking sites and blogs than doing any other activity in June 2010. Games, which came in second, took up less than half as much time.
On the mobile internet, however, more traditional activities still reign. Email dominated the mobile picture even more strongly than social networking did the desktop: If all time spent on the mobile web was condensed into a single hour, US internet users would have spent 25 minutes in June checking email. Portals would have received another 7 minutes, with social networks not far behind.

Nielsen reported that social networking has been closing the gap in time spent on the mobile internet, gaining share since last year as portals dropped in importance over the same period.
But email remains one of the most popular mobile internet activities not just by time spent but also by penetration. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 34% of all US mobile subscribers used email on their phone in May 2010, compared with 23% who used a social networking site.
comScore also reported mobile email usage via a browser ahead of social networking. That research found search had the highest penetration of any mobile browsing activity, but search is less time-intensive than email or social sites.

Social should continue to make gains in the mobile realm, however. comScore reported it was the fastest-growing mobile internet activity between 2009 and 2010, rising 80% in usage, while email grew more slowly. Bridge Ratings predicted in June that mobile social networking would grow twice as quickly as email during the next 12 months.
The growing penetration of smartphones will be a key factor in increased mobile social networking. According to comScore, 53% of smartphone users participated in social networking activities on the go, compared with just 11% of feature phone owners.
Keep your business ahead of the digital curve. Learn more about becoming an eMarketer Total Access client today.
Check out today’s other article, “Strategies to Help Retailers Prep for Holiday Success.”

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Social networks around the world 2010

Social networks around the world 2010

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The era of mobile advertising is coming soon

by Jason Kincaid on Apr 8, 2010

Today during its iPhone 4.0 developer preview, Steve Jobs announced Apple’s much-anticipated mobile advertising platform, iAd. This has been expected since Apple acquired mobile ad platform Quattro Wireless, after having AdMob snatched away by Google (though the FTC may recommend blocking that deal).
Apple will sell and host the ads, giving 60% of ad revenue back to developers, and Jobs says that developers can add ads to their apps “in an afternoon”. Unlike most mobile ads, which kick users outside of the application they’re currently using, iAd keeps users in the same app. In a jab at Flash, while showing an ad, Jobs said “Oh, by the way, all of this is done in HTML 5.”
The first ad Jobs showcased during his demo was for Toy Story 3. It was rendered in HTML 5, was fully interactive, and looked similar to a native app — it actually had a game integrated in it. Jobs said, “”This is a new kind of mobile ad. Have you ever seen a mobile ad like this? Anything even close?”
Second, Jobs showed off an ad for Nike, which showed a history of Nike ads and allowed the user to actually flip through a history of the brand’s shoes. Ads will have access to many of the same APIs as ‘normal’ native applications — they’ll be able to use location services and the accelerometer. Location, in particular, will be important — this is going to be a boon to hyperlocal advertising (provided Apple offers a good way for local businesses to get their ads in the system).
It sounds like Apple won’t be too restrictive on who can build apps: Ad agencies will be able to develop these interactive ads, as will app developers. Though I imagine they’ll have to go through a review process similar to native apps on the App Store. Update: During a Q&A Apple said it would use a “light touch” and that there were obviously some ads they didn’t want to have shown, the same way a TV network doesn’t want some ads shown.
The obvious consequence of this new platform is that ads from other ad networks may well become second-class citizens, perhaps not just from Apple’s perspective but from a functional standpoint. Details are still scant, but if iAds are the only ads on the iPhone that can access the iPhone’s API, then ads from third party networks may be less interactive, and may not be able to as effectively determine the user’s location. Assuming developers embrace iAds and the iPhone continues its strong growth, this could have a significant impact on Google’s mobile ad efforts in the future.
Here’s what Jobs had to say about the launch (we’re updating from from our live notes, some of this may be paraphrased):

“Developers [of free apps] need to find a way to start making their money. A lot of developers turn to advertising – and we think these current advertisements really suck.”
“If you look at advertisements on a phone, it’s not like on a desktop. On a desktop, its about search. On mobile, search hasnt happened. People aren’t searching on their phones. People are spending their time in apps”
The average user spends 30 minutes a day in apps. If we put an add up every 3 minutes, that’s 10 ads per day.
Throughout the iPhone community, that’s 1 billion ad impressions per day
We’ve all seen interactive ads on the web. We want to deliver interaction – but also emotion.
“If you click on an add now, you’re yanked out of your app. As a result, people don’t click on ads.”
“We have figured out how to do interactive and video content without ever taking you out of the app”
Apple will sell and host the ads, and give 60% of ad revenue to developers

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How are Mobile Phones Changing Social Media?

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7 Solid Social Media Marketing Trends

Written by Niels Bellaar on March 31st, 2010 | 6 comments

We, at ViralBlog, are into social media. We not only hear, read and talk about what is going on, what works and what doesn’t; we also practise it professionally. And we notice that there is a need for marketers to know what us social media geeks are all about.




So, if you are a marketer (or if you happen to know one and want to help him/her) continue reading on these seven social media trends for brands.

1. The Audience Is In Control
Now don’t let this one scare you, more and more marketers understand that ‘in social’ there always is this ’social’ factor. Together people create content about brands, and in many occasions the brands have no idea. Look for what’s already out there and embrace it, like Jeep does once again.
2. Social Media Is Not Free Publicity
‘If you pay peanuts you get monkeys’. That really applies to social media. Big trend we see for the coming years is brands that hire specialized social media content managers; people that not only create a Facebook page and wait and see where it goes (we can tell you now: nowhere), but also actively create news around the brand, make (and keep) it interesting to follow a brand and answer questions.
3. Social Gaming
Do those FarmVille messages in Facebook annoy you? Over 23 million people are fan of this social Facebook game. Simple games that can be played with friend within your fan’s favourite social network. For now people buy sheep and chickens, but soon they buy your product to step up their game.
4. ROI Measurement
Measuring the effect of your on-line activities on (off-line) sales becomes increasingly important. Obviously you, the marketer, see the possibilities of social media marketing and together with your social media agency you have great ideas. Now all you need is approval and money. And as you know you only get that when you can prove the return is bigger than the investment. So measuring and tracking plays a big part in social media marketing.
5. Integrating, Mixing & Sharing
Many brands ask visitors of their (campaign) websites to become a fan on Facebook and/or follow the brand on Twitter. Surely that is great, and you should definitely not stop doing it, but now start looking at integrating these platforms in your brand dotcom. Have video content on your dotcom? Embed it from YouTube. If you ask visitors to participate on your campaign site let them spread the word to their friends on Facebook!
6. Mobile & Location Based Content
Many companies block social networks because the IT guys think they are evil. At the same more and more people have a smartphone, leading to heavy use of social networks on mobile. The integration of social networks with the functionalities of smartphones make great location based social applications, like Foursquare, and make it easy for brand to connect (with) people and places.
7. Social Commerce
Now that more and more brands understand their target audience has a grouped presence on social networks moving (or adding) a shop in social networks is a logical step to take. Look at EasyJet who are planning to sell flights directly on Facebook, and Dell who are embracing group buys by starting its Swarm service.
Constantly evolving and discovering social media leads to new ways of engaging people in marketing strategies – more and more ‘trends’ will be visible. What trends and opportunities do you see in the near (or far) future?

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Nielsen’s New App Playbook Debunks Mobile App Store Myth

March 24, 2010

Mobile carrier app stores are a long way from dead. Despite the fanfare around application stores tied to specific mobile devices such as iPhones and BlackBerries, a new Nielsen survey finds ongoing loyalty to carrier stores.  As of the end of 2009, half of all applications users were accessing carrier app stores according to Nielsen’s new App Playbook.

That said, the Apple App Store was the clear leader in preferred application stores in the United States and, combined with the dedicated AT&T Application Store, devices running on the AT&T network have the most popular stores.

The relatively new BlackBerry App World Store was the second most popular app store due to BlackBerry’s industry-leading installed base.

Carrier application stores come in next on the rankings due to the size of their subscriber base, suggesting users of more standard feature phones drove much of this ongoing popularity.

Nielsen’s App Playbook  surveys more than 4,000 application downloaders in the United States every six months about their mobile application usage. It allows companies in the mobile ecosphere to monitor the transition and growth of the application market as mobile users shift from feature phones to smartphones.

Not surprisingly smartphone users were generally using applications more than feature phone users – only 12% of feature phone owners have downloaded an app in the past 30 days while 46% of smartphone owners have —  with application usage driven mostly by the iPhone and Android devices. This was due to the size of the application universe offered on both platforms, which was significantly larger than that of the other platforms. BlackBerry’s relatively low number was due to the significant corporate user share, which often locks the device and only allows corporate IT to install applications on the device.

Among recent acquirers, BlackBerry continued to be the market share leader among smartphones in the U.S., while Apple’s iPhone continued to increase its market share, especially after the launch of the iPhone 3GS in June 2009. The launch of a significant number of Android devices in the latter part of 2009, drove its market share to 5% at the end of the year and set it on a promising trajectory for 2010. Both Microsoft and Palm were unable to capitalize on their new launches in 2009 of Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 and the Palm Pre and Pixi, losing 7% market share and 4% market share respectively. Symbian, one of the leading smart phone operating systems globally continues to struggle to make significant inroads in the United States.

With only eight Android devices launched in 2009 – and the Droid launching late in the year – the Android Market Store saw modest popularity.   Since then, a large number of Android devices launched, and the popularity of the Android Market Store is expected to increase as a result. This is further illustrated by the high satisfaction scores the Android Market received in the Nielsen study, second only to the Apple App Store. The Palm Application Store seems to be languishing due to the relatively modest success of the new Palm Pre and Palm Pixi, combined with a comparatively low number of applications available in its app store. The same is true for the Windows Marketplace, which is also suffering from a low number of applications and dwindling market share for Windows Mobile devices.

The Apple App Store and the Android Market Place have a sizable lead in terms of satisfaction compared to the other application stores. We see similar sized leads for both the Apple App Store and the Android Market Place when it comes to satisfaction with the pricing of the apps. While the often-overlooked carrier application stores are significantly behind the two leaders in terms of satisfaction, they are still marginally ahead of the BlackBerry App World and Windows Marketplace. It will be interesting to see how the just-announced revamp of the Windows Marketplace will impact satisfaction scores and what RIM will do in their next iteration of App World.

About Nielsen’s App Playbook
Insights from Nielsen’s App Playbook were gathered from 4,265 respondents who had downloaded an application in the past 30 days, 2,351 of which owned a smartphone and 1,914 of which owned a feature phone.  The respondents were identified through Nielsen’s Mobile Insights syndicated tracking study, which surveys 80,000 mobile subscribers per quarter.  The App Playbook sample is weighted back to the total qualified population from the Nielsen Mobile Insights survey.  The survey covers a wide range of topics related to applications, including audience profiling, market sizing, download and purchase behavior, app store channel, app usage and satisfaction.

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Smartphones to Overtake Feature Phones in U.S. by 2011

For more info: Contact The Nielsen Company

Roger Entner, Senior Vice President, Research and Insights, Telecom Practice

The iPhone, Blackberry, Droid and smartphones in general dominate the buzz in the mobile market, but only 21% of American wireless subscribers are using a smartphone as of the fourth quarter 2009 compared to 19% in Q3 2009 and 14% at the end of 2008. We are just at the beginning of a new wireless era where smartphones will become the standard device consumers will use to connect to  friends, the internet and the world at large. The share of smartphones as a proportion of overall device sales has increased to 29% for phone purchasers in the last six months and 45% of respondents to a Nielsen survey indicated that their next device will be a smartphone. If we combine these intentional data points with falling prices and increasing capabilities of these devices along with a explosion of applications for devices, we are seeing the beginning of a groundswell. This increase will be so rapid, that by the end of 2011, Nielsen expects more smartphones in the U.S. market than feature phones.

The Smartphone User
Slightly more males than females are getting smartphones (53% versus 47%) which is what we would expect for technical early adopter products. In terms of demographics, Hispanic Americans and Asians are slightly more likely to have a smartphone than what their share of population would indicate, which is a trend we see in the adoption of other mobile data services. While smartphones started out in the business segment, two-third of today’s buyers of smartphones are personal users.

Loyalty
In the last six months, roughly 77% of new smartphone buyers remained loyal to their wireless operator, while 18% switched to a new provider to get their new smartphone with the remaining percentage made up of first-time smartphone buyers. Interestingly enough, the percentage of people who switched carriers and got a new smartphone is not higher than that of the average wireless subscriber.

This indicates that the portfolio of the wireless carriers in general is robust enough to prevent any wide-spread smartphone flight from one carrier to the other, with very few exceptions. The added bonus for wireless carriers is that smartphone owners are significantly more satisfied (81%) with their device than feature phone owners (66%).

Features, features, features
Smartphones show higher application usage than feature phones even at the basic built-in application level. During Nielsen’s Mobile Insights survey we asked the respondents about features they’ve used in the last 30 days. The good news for the smartphone market is that people are actually taking advantage of the device capabilities.

The percentage of people who use their phone for only voice communications drops from 14% among new feature phone owners to 3% of smartphone owners. The use of the built-in camera and video capability jumps by almost 20% for both categories, due to the generally better quality and user friendliness of the features. Smartphones also often have a better speaker which translates into more frequent usage from about half of feature phone owners to about two-thirds of smartphone owners. Not surprisingly the use of Wi-Fi increases 10-fold from 5% for feature phone owners to 50% for smartphone users to satisfy the need for fast downloads.

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61% of mobile online page views are to social networking sites

A new mobile metrics company called GroundTruth has just posted a statistic on their blog showing that well over half (61%) of mobile online page views are to social networking sites. While anecdotally I've noticed that most of the people I see pecking away at their phone's keyboard are doing so on Facebookor Twitter, GroundTruth is including a number of lesser-known social networking sites in this number.

The point of GroundTruth's post seems to be that mobile users have distinctly different browsing habits than regular web users, but isn't that fairly obvious? In a mobile context people are just snacking on info, or posting a quick update. You typically don't do a lot of research on your mobile device.

Surely this information is interesting to advertisers, who need to find new and better ways to reach their target audiences. Mobile eyeballs are still eyeballs, so maybe this is a good sign for the longevity and financial viability of social networking sites.

by groundtruth.

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Consumers Take to Shopping by Smartphone

Android users willing to spend the most on mobile

JANUARY 11, 2010

Q3 2009 data from Compete lends support to the hope that 2010 is—finally—the year m-commerce will take off.

Nearly two-fifths of smartphone owners reported having bought something nonmobile over their mobile phone in the past six months, though many still report frustration with mobile site functionality. And the top shopping-related smartphone activities are still research-based.

More than one-half of smartphone users checked out product descriptions, and many looks for reviews, coupons or better prices. About one-third even bought the item on the mobile channel after seeing it in a store. eMarketer senior analyst Jeffrey Grau warned of this danger on the eMarketer blog.

“A retailer’s best defense for maintaining customer loyalty is to develop a mobile offering that allows in-store shoppers access to customer reviews and other product information on its Website,” he advised. “By providing mobile access to their extensive online product information, they help customers feel more comfortable about making a purchase.”

Android users said they would spend the most via mobile, followed by iPhone owners. Smartphone users with Windows, BlackBerry or Palm devices had similar, lower spending thresholds.

Usage of m-commerce features among smartphone users is higher than among all mobile subscribers. Deloitte found that 15% of US mobile users purchased products via mobile at least occasionally in 2009. The researcher also found that about one-fifth of mobile users planned to use their phone for shopping activities this past holiday season.

Keep up on the latest digital trends. Learn more about an eMarketerTotal Access subscription, today.

Check out today’s other article, “Harnessing Active Brand Advocates.”

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Child Mobile Ownership Up

JANUARY 12, 2010

One-fifth of kids go mobile

Americans are beginning their “always-on” habits at a younger and younger age, according to Mediamark Research & Intelligence’s (MRI’s) “American Kids Study.”

More than one-third of 10-to-11-year-olds in the US owned a mobile phone in 2009, compared with 20% in 2005. Ownership among kids ages 6 to 11 rose from 11.9% to 20% over the same time period.

In 2007, ownership among boys was 12.4%, while 18.6% of girls had a mobile phone. Penetration increased for both groups, but ownership among males increased faster, helping them catch up and narrow the gender gap to 18.3% versus 21.8%.

Kids with cellphones are still kids, though, and the top mobile activity by far was calling their parents. Using the phone to talk to friends and for emergencies was closely followed by text messaging, notoriously popular among young people.

“Preliminary data suggests that boys and girls may use their phones differently,” noted Anne Marie Kelly, SVP, marketing and strategic planning at MRI, in a statement. “Girls are more apt to make calls and send text messages while boys are more likely to instant message, access the Internet and download games, music and video.”

The Marketing to Moms Coalition found in summer 2009 that mobile devices accounted for the top two ways mothers communicated with their children under 18, with respondents talking to their kids on mobile phones an average of 5.1 times per week and texting their children 3.3 times weekly.

Keep up on the latest digital trends. Learn more about an eMarketerTotal Access subscription, today.

Check out today’s other article, “Younger Americans Still Fueling Facebook.”  

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Morgan Stanley: Mobile Internet Market Will Be Twice The Size of Desktop Internet

Morgan Stanley has released a couple of bulky documents about the mobile Internet: 'The Mobile Internet Report,' a 424-page report which explores eight major themes; and 'The Mobile Internet Report Key Themes,' a 659-slide

presentation that drills down on thoughts covered in the report. We've embedded both documents below.

Perhaps the most remarkable statement in the report is that the Mobile Internet market will be "at least 2x size of Desktop Internet," which Morgan Stanley bases on analysis comparing Internet users with mobile subscribers.

The report starts out by saying that Apple's iPhone/iTouch/iTunes ecosystem "may prove to be the fastest ramping and most disruptive technology product / service launch the world has ever seen." It goes on to state that "a handful of incumbents (like Apple, Google, Amazon.com and Skype) appear especially well positioned for mobile changes."

Growth in the Mobile Internet is being driven by 3G adoption and the increasing popularity of smartphones, of which the iPhone is the leader in terms of Web traffic. Morgan Stanley predicts that smartphones "will out-ship the global notebook + netbook market in 2010E and out-ship the global PC market (notebook + netbook + desktop) by 2012E."

The firm has always been bullish on mobile Internet, as Mary Meeker's Web 2.0 conference presentations over the years show. See also our analysis of Meeker's 2009 Web 2.0 presentation.

The reports are far too big to summarize here, so we recommend you read them below - or download from Morgan Stanley's website.

The Mobile Internet Report

The Mobile Internet Report Setup

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