A recent GfK NOP Technology report shows consumers’ love affair with mobile phone applications has turned from a dalliance into a settled and dependable relationship. With a fifth of smartphone users downloading more apps than six months ago, mobile applications may soon replace browsers as the main gateway to the web for mobile phone users.
To read the full GfK NOP Technology report click here
The FIFA World Cup is finally upon us and while football fans, vuvuzelas aside, have been enjoying the first week of games, employers have a difficult decision to make when it comes to England’s game against Slovenia on Wednesday 23 June at 3pm UK time. Passionate debates about football are all too common, but there is one debate that takes place every four years – namely whether employers should give their staff time off to watch their national team play in the World Cup.
GfK data shows that 5% of employees are going to be allowed time off or be granted flexible working hours to fit around England’s match against Slovenia (this includes GfK NOP). Although this seems fairly small it still shows that employers are willing to let their staff take time off because of a football fixture. Most companies will doubtless have already made their decision regarding their position on this matter, but for the few remaining who are yet to make an official announcement, we would urge that they give the go ahead to watch the match.
Growth returns to Western European consumer technology markets in Q1 2010. GfK TEMAX data shows that consumers are more willing to upgrade their home technology as well as experiment with new smartphone mobile technology.
GfK TEMAX data shows that, overall, the consumer technology market recorded 2.7% growth in Q1 this year compared to Q1 in 2009. Key technology sectors have recorded year on year growth, including Telecommunications (+4.9%), Information Technology (+3.6%) and Consumer Electronics (+0.7%) in Q1 2010. Smartphones, Windows 7 and LCD TVs are all driving factors of growth in their respective sectors.
Smartphones continue to drive growth in the Telecommunications market
While the telecommunications market declined by -3.2% in the fourth quarter 2009, the first quarter of 2010 returned to growth with a +4.9% increase year on year.
Apple is a leading force in the smartphone market because they simplify services and enable people to fit their world in their pocket.
Yesterday, Steve Jobs announced the latest iPhone 4 at WWDC but what struck me was the way he structured his presentation. Jobs focused early on about the success of the App Store for both consumers and developers. There is now 225,000 apps available, 5 billion downloads and Apple has paid out $1 billion dollars to developers. Apple has created a vibrant market place for mobile apps and services with more big brands to launch later this year. That is success unrivalled by anyone.
To cover all this first was smart because Jobs was focusing on the services and the benefits of owning (or developing content for) an iPhone. After all the device features are becoming less important over time whereas services and content is increasingly driving consumer demand in the smartphone (as opposed to the feature phone) market.
Expect to see a vibrant and competitive tablet PC market over the next 12 months as Apple sell 2 million iPads globally in less than 60 days.
Apple certainly knows how to get the media and public excited about their latest creation, the iPad. Everyone is talking about the iPad and tablet PCs and this is not just tech press but also mainstream news bulletins. Apple is extremely proficient at sparking people’s imagination around all the creative ways their products, iPhone and iPad, can be used. Apple’s famous strapline for the iPhone was “there’s an app for that” which creates a powerful perception that anything is possible, and the same applies on the iPad.
