We often seem to think that the Apple App Store has a dominant market position for mobile devices helped in no small part by the extensive press coverage it seems to attract. Recent research by GfK Technology (1,000 online interviews conducted in Jan 2010) suggests, however, that the apps store market is in reality more varied with a wide range of stores competing for business.

The Apple Apps Store does indeed lead the market but with 39% of consumers (that downloaded an application for their mobile device in the last 3 months) using it rather than a convincing majority. That’s not to say that they are better than other stores at extracting money from consumers or encouraging repeat visits but in terms of where individuals do their mobile apps shopping, they still have some way to go before taking the majority of the market.

Mobile devices continue to be a significant advertising channel according to recent research GfK Technology recently undertook in the UK.  The proportion of consumers who had received some form of mobile advertising stood at 47%, fairly consistent with the findings from Q2 ’09.  The big shift is perhaps the growth of iPhone as a staggering 84% of iPhone users say they have seen mobile advertising in the last 3 months vs. 45% of all other mobile phone users.

SMS continues to be the dominant form of mobile advertising with 38% of UK consumers receiving at least one in the last quarter.  It’s therefore not surprising that network operators are putting significant investment into this area with O2 launching their SMS marketing service, More, in December and Orange partnering a trial with Blyk mid ’09.

In recent weeks, so much has been said about what 2010 will bring to the tech landscape that one can’t help but reading with a pinch of salt. For someone that works with customer opinions and observes their behaviour for a living, it becomes apparent that some of the predicted products and services, if they do make it to market, are destined to remain within that niche group of technology enthusiasts that created them in the first place.

Many of course have potential, and if implemented and marketed correctly have high chances of making it to the wider masses. That is, if they were ever intended to do so.

So – what is going to really work?

The answer is, well.. simple. Or, rather: simplicity. If given a choice, customers will always choose and glorify products and services that will offer them “more” in less time and with fewer headaches, the tools that empower them to reach a given goal with the minimum of disruption.

If you read our post regarding 3D TV and want to check it out yourself, here’s a list of pubs showing the game in 3D:

If you do watch the game in 3D we’d love to know what you think, just let us know in the comments.

Enjoy!

NB. List courtesy of geeks.co.uk

GfK NOP research shows good levels of interest in 3D TV amongst adult consumers. The main barriers to adoption will eventually disappear, but are likely to stall early widespread adoption.

One of the recurring items in the numerous “predicted technology trends for 2010” lists that emerged at the start of the year was 3D TV.

GfK NOP research reveals most popular online brands in communication, entertainment and information services

The ‘Connected Life’ study, which asked 2,000 UK internet users about their favourite services, found 60% of music users stream music directly from the internet. While iTunes still leads the direct-streaming arena (17%), Spotify is coming up at a close second, with 12%.  Looking at all digital music users (not just direct streamers), 11% of these have used Spotify, making this fourth most popular digital music service, behind the more established Real Player (13%), Amazon (24%) and ITunes (50%). Another newcomer, Last.FM, also fares well with seven per cent having used the service; ahead of two of the pioneers of digital music mp3.com (5%) and Napster (4%).

Babita Earle, Divisional Director at GfK Technology comments:

The internet has become such an integral part of life today that two out of five UK users would give up their television before their internet connection, if they had to choose between the two; according to a new survey from leading research agency, GfK NOP.

The ‘Connected Life’ study reveals that a staggering 41 per cent of UK internet users agree that “If I had to choose, I would rather keep my internet connection than my TV” – of which almost half said they ‘agree strongly’ with that statement. Only 29 per cent disagreed, and 31 per cent had no strong feelings either way.

Babita Earle, Divisional Director at GfK Technology comments:

Despite the continuing efforts of manufacturers, it seems that we the consumer are still not recycling our old mobile phones.  Research by GfK NOP way back in 2007 first highlighted the problem of consumer lethargy but since then recent reports suggest there has been little improvement since.

An article by Telephony online for example, bemoans that:

“when a mobile phone reaches its end of life or, more likely, a consumer opts to upgrade, the three most common places for it to end up are a landfill, an incinerator or the consumer’s desk drawer.  Nokia’s own studies find that only about 3% of consumers are recycling their handsets today …there could be as many as one billion sitting in desks, consumers  aren’t spending the time or effort to seek out a recycling program.”