The digital revolution is sweeping the UK but viewers appear unwilling to pay for the limited range of HD channels on offer.
UK households with digital televisions as their main set now account for 87.2 per cent of the total, according to a study by Ofcom.
The survey by the independent communications industry regulator reveals how the digital TV market is divided up between the three main forms – digital terrestrial television (DTT), satellite and cable television.
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The Apple 3G iPhone will change the mobile behaviour of users and alter consumer expectations for phone capabilities.
That’s according to a report by analysts Nielsen Mobile which looks at the worldwide state of the mobile web.
The study says that its growth is due to a combination of increasing numbers of user friendly handsets, higher speed networks and unlimited data packages.
It then goes on to describe the mobile web as having reached a “critical mass” of users this year.
But it singles out the iPhone – despite being the second most popular device among mobile users in the US after Motorola’s RAZR – for special mention.
The function-packed Apple iPhone 3G may about to be released to the world but many consumers say they just want a mobile that’s a phone
Clint Wheelock, vice president and chief research officer for ABI Research, said: “It’s still a voice-centric world. Consumers across all mature markets still choose their mobile operator based on ‘the basics’: price, friends/family on the same network, and network coverage.”
A report from ABI Research shows that cameras, Bluetooth, and music top consumers’ lists as “must have” features on mobile phones.
BY 2015 nobody will refer to “high definition” TV because HD will be the standard form of free television everywhere.
But the HD broadcast offering in Europe will largely remain patchy during the intervening transition period, according to a report by Screen Digest.
The study says HDTV will mainly develop as a pay TV product in Europe over the next five years – and mostly as a satellite product.
South Korean regulations requiring handset applications to be based on a homegrown technology are largely why the country’s mobile phone market is dominated by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.
As a result of the WIPI ruling – the acronym stands for wireless internet platform for interoperability – foreign companies have found it too expensive to produce handsets tailored for South Korean consumers.
Nokia is virtually absent in the country and Motorola is a minor competitor with less than 5 per cent of the market. Apple has kept its iPhone out of the market because of the WIPI rule.
Yet international handset makers are keen to enter South Korea, one of the world’s most technologically advanced and expensive telecoms markets.
Now President Lee Myung-bak’s newly elected government has expressed a willingness to soften the WIPI rule, potentially opening the door to foreign handset makers.
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The mobile phone distributor, Brightpoint, is to take cost-cutting measures across its global operations over fears of a slowdown in handset sales.
The company said it now expects the global handset market to reach 1.25-1.30 billion units this year, down from a previous estimate of 1.25-1.35 billion.
Second-quarter sell-in units are expected to be “flat to slightly up” compared to the first three months of the year.
This contrasts with a previous forecast for 3-5 per cent growth by the distributor.
The cost-cutting will come mainly in Europe, at the former Dangaard operations.
Brightpoint is cutting 50-75 jobs at its European head office in Denmark, and eliminating another 225-250 positions across its other European operations.
This is expected to result in annual cost savings of US$25-30 million.
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The top and bottom ends of the wireless handset markets are to enjoy the best growth rates over the next five years, according to researchers.
This will be at the expense of mid-range models, commonly called “enhanced” phones. The enhanced phone sector is currently the largest in terms of shipments, with 854 million units shipped in 2007.
But it will be overtaken by both other classes in 2013, with just 441 million shipping.
Kevin Burden, a director of ABI Research and author of the report “Mobile devices annual market overview”, said: “As we see more user sophistication and demand for high-end features, handset manufacturers will continue to push functions of high-level smartphone operating systems further down their product lines.
“Their smartphone portfolios will grow, and with them, the entire smartphone market.”
The report said this was seen as desireable by operators as well, who wanted more smartphone users because of the higher average revenue per user (ARPU) they generated.
The mobile software market will be worth an estimated US$ 67.3 billion in 2013 – up from US$ 17.9 in 2007 – as the number of mobile devices grows and minutes of use increases steadily.
This revenue growth will be fuelled by mobile carriers’ willingness to carry data apart from voice and the introduction of third-generation (3G) smartphones.
That’s the conclusion of analysts at Frost & Sullivan in their report “World Next-Generation Mobile Software Market”.
They say that with the expansion of memory, an increase in processor speed and the availability of better networks that allow for faster data transfer, mobile software is in for exponential growth.
Over a third of all US broadband users have watched at least one TV show on the Internet, according to a study conducted on behalf of the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM).
But the research found that while broadband users are increasingly turning to the web for their video content fix, 94 per cent still prefer to do their viewing on a television screen.
For cable and satellite networks concerned about the growing threat of online TV shows and movies, the survey provided some comfort.
Of those who watched online shows, 82 per cent did so because they had missed a specific programme on TV.
Based on this, the report points out the “critical importance of strong marketing for the initial TV showing".
Almost a quarter of European households have given up fixed landlines for mobile phones and online calling, according to a European Union survey.
The poll, carried out in November and December, found that 24 per cent of European households now eschew fixed landlines in favour of mobile phones, up from 22 per cent in a survey two years earlier.
The Czech Republic, Finland and Lithuania had the lowest number of landlines in use across the 27-nation bloc.
The results chime with the growing interest in the use of mobile VoIP services – either via GSM/GPRS wireless standards or through WiFi – and the widespread installation of internet calling software on smartphones.