Windows phones overtake Apple iPhone in China (China)
The Chinese market has been showing great acceptance for Windows phones over other operating systems. According to a report by mobile and apps, just two months after the first set of Windows Phones entered the Chinese market, the platform made giant strides to take 7 percent of the market. In doing this, Windows has overtaken Apple and is now second only to Google’s Android based smartphones.
Microsoft’s ultimate target is to overtake Android to be the dominant player in the smartphone arena. As per the report, another 7 percent growth in similar time frame would propel Windows Phone to be viewed as a viable alternative to Android, which would boost growth more significantly.
Michel van der Bel, COO Greater China Region at Microsoft said that their smartphone and tablet-pc are hybrid, making them suitable for the consumer, but also easy to insert within an existing company infrastructure. This will allow them to better anticipate the consumerization of IT than many competitors.
50.4% US customers use smartphones; Android accounts for 48.5% (USA)
According to a recent report by Nielsen, in March 2012 smartphones as many as by 50.4 percent of consumers in US were using smartphones over basic devices, with Android maintaining its dominant position, accounting for 48.5 percent of all smartphone handsets. Apple follows at 32 percent remaining the single-biggest smartphone handset brand.
However, the smartphone growth in US has been slow in the past three months, with a growth of only 3 percent from 47.8 percent in December 2011. The report also highlights that Asian Americans have the highest usage, at 67.3 percent, using a smartphone device.
Hispanics were in second place with 57.3 percent of the group using smartphones, with African Americans closely following with 54.4 percent. Whites had the lowest penetration of all, with 44.7 percent. A gender analysis revealed that in the U.S. 50.9 percent of females had smartphones, while among men it was 50.1 percent.
SingTel Group’s mobile customer base reaches 445 million (Singapore)
Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) announced that the Group posted another quarter of strong growth in customer acquisitions. As at 31 March 2012, the Group had a total mobile customer base of 445 million, an increase of 11 per cent or 42.9 million from a year ago.
Airtel’s total mobile customer base reached 241 million as at 31 March 2012, an increase of 29.2 million or 14 per cent from a year ago. In India, Airtel’s mobile customer base grew by 19.1 million or 12 per cent to 181 million. During the quarter, Airtel introduced ‘Airtel Money’, India’s first telco-led mobile wallet service on a nationwide basis.
In Africa, Airtel had a total mobile customer base of 53.1 million, an increase of 8.9 million or 20 per cent. In the quarter, Airtel expanded the rollout of its 3G services to five more countries in Africa: Ghana, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania.
Telkomsel’s total mobile customer base stood at 110 million, up 10.5 million or 11 per cent. Its market share was at approximately 43.3 per cent as at 31 March 2012, up 0.4 percentage point from a quarter ago.
Optus continued its postpaid customer growth momentum with net additions of 82,000 this quarter which included a one-off reduction of 33,000 to a wholesale service provider’s customer base. Excluding this adjustment, postpaid customer net additions this quarter were 115,000.
Prepaid customers were stable at 4.29 million. Net additions for the full year were 421,000, bringing Optus’ total mobile customer base to 9.49 million, up 5 per cent from a year ago. Postpaid customers comprised 55 per cent of the total base, up 2 percentage points from a year ago.
The number of 3G customers increased to 6.63 million, a 6 per cent increase from a quarter ago. This included a base of 1.58 million wireless broadband customers, an increase of 23 per cent from a year ago.
In Singapore, SingTel further grew its market leadership to 45.9 per cent. Its total mobile customer base grew by 273,000 customers or 8.3 per cent from a year ago to 3.58 million as at 31 March 2012.
Full year net additions in the postpaid segment were 171,000 customers, lifting total postpaid customer base by 9.6 per cent to 1.95 million. The growth was driven by increasing demand for smartphones and data SIMs from integrated mobile broadband bundles.
In the prepaid segment, SingTel’s customer base grew by 102,000 customers or 6.7 per cent to 1.63 million, led by strong demand for 3G offerings such as 3G SIM, data and Blackberry value added services. SingTel continues to drive data usage among prepaid customers, empowering them with faster Internet access at lower costs with the introduction of ‘Opera Mini Browser’.
Intel reports quarterly revenues of $12.9 billion, dividend up by 7 percent (USA)
America based chip maker, Intel Corporation, announced its first quarter results, reporting quarterly revenue of $12.9 billion.
Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO, said that the first quarter was a solid start to what’s expected to be another growth year for Intel. In the second quarter they will see the first Intel-based smartphones in the market, ship products based on 22nm tri-gate technology in high volume, and accelerate the ramp of their best server product ever, providing a tremendous foundation for growth in 2012 and beyond.
The company announced that its board of directors has approved a 7 percent increase in the quarterly cash dividend to 22.5 cents per share (90 cents per share on an annual basis), beginning with the dividend that will be declared in the third quarter of 2012.
Otellini added that 2012 is expected to be another year of record revenues for Intel, with strong demand in their core business and significant progress in smartphones and other new growth areas. This latest dividend increase is one more example of their commitment to return cash to their stockholders as they continue to generate strong cash flow fueled by the global growth of computing.
Catalina acquires Mobile Commerce innovator Modiv Media (USA)
Catalina Marketing Corporation, the leader in precision consumer marketing, announced that is has completed its acquisition of Modiv Media, the industry-proven provider of mobile commerce solutions. The integration of Modiv into Catalina provides brands and retailers the ability to engage shoppers, influence their behavior, and boost loyalty with a unique mobile experience that saves shoppers time and money.
Catalina helps manufacturer and retail brands deliver unprecedented performance and healthier outcomes with integrated in-store and online marketing platforms. The acquisition extends Catalina’s targeted consumer engagement to include shoppers’ smartphones.
Jamie Egasti, CEO, Catalina Marketing said that they have been watching Modiv for quite some time now. Their success in driving in-store innovation is unmatched and their ability to deliver a scalable mobile commerce solution is exactly what retailers are looking for. The acquisition will allow Catalina to drive greater consumer engagement before and during the buying experience for brands, and deliver increased revenue and shopper loyalty for large-scale retailers.
Mike Grimes, SVP of mobile commerce for Catalina and former CEO of Modiv Media, said that Modiv’s retailer-proven mobile commerce solution, coupled with Catalina’s scale, analytics and content, provides an unmatched mobile shopper marketing solution for large retailers. Helping shoppers save time and money through an intuitive and relevant mobile experience is paramount to the future of retail. When combined with Catalina’s deep targeting and large CPG-funded offer pool, this becomes a must-have for retailers.
Egasti added that Modiv has spent the last several years building in-store mobile solutions from the ground up, engineering for a very complex environment. Today, they have the only mobile commerce solution designed to meet the demands of high-frequency retail. From comprehensive integration with POS systems to leveraging loyalty and CRM to influence behavior, this solution integrates perfectly with Catalina and will change how retailers and brands engage and empower consumers.
Since its founding in 2001, the Modiv solution was built on the premise of connecting the physical store with the shopper via a mobile device. Already in over 350 locations, their retailer-branded solution influences over 1 million shopping trips per month that drive over $1 billion in retailer sales annually.
This February, Modiv introduced Modiv Social which enables retailers and brands to offer shoppers an integrated mobile coupon wallet experience that aggregates coupons from any couponing source (web, retailer, mobile, digital, etc.) and gives shoppers the unique ability to share select mobile coupons via Facebook. Going far beyond simple sharing, Modiv Social enables retailers and brands alike the ability to track, monitor, manage and analyze the lifecycle of a socially shared coupon, as well as identify ëshopping influencers’ and rewarding those who share these coupons.
The entire Modiv team will remain in the Boston area and will be the foundation of Catalina’s mobile efforts. The company is currently evaluating a new office location in Boston’s Innovation District to support expansion plans for the mobile team.
LG favours Android over Windows (USA, South Korea)
Microsoft’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer has recently announced that the company is planning to focus on smartphones running on Google’s Android mobile operating system. According to a report by KoreaHerald, the executive also said LG is taking a step back from Windows phones powered by Microsoft’s platform, adding that it will continue research and development efforts on Windows Phones.
As per the report, a spokesperson for LG revealed that the total unit of Windows Phone sold in the global market is not a meaningful figure. Further, the company currently has no plans of rolling out another LG-manufactured Windows phone soon.
The report reveals that Ballmer may holding a meeting with the chief of LG Electronics, as the U.S. software giant chief is expected to visit Seoul this month. Microsoft Korea spokesperson Lee Seung-yeon said that Ballmer, who will speak about the ‘new era of technology,’ will be staying for a day in Seoul.
Nokia Windows phone receives support from carriers (USA)
With the increasing dominance of iPhones and Android powered smartphones in the handset arena, wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless have been looking at phones from Nokia and Microsoft as alternatives, according to a report by BN.
As per the report, both carriers praised Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, which powers the new Nokia Lumia phone, when they reported quarterly results this month. AT&T began offering the Lumia 900 for $99.99 on April 8, and Verizon is preparing to add a new Nokia model to its lineup soon.
The operators are hoping that these handsets act as an alternative for users as devices such as iPhone can be more costly to subsidize. The companies also face the risk that an Apple-Google duopoly will erode carriers’ ability to distinguish themselves and will further squeeze their profit margins.
AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens told BN in an interview that they want the Lumia to succeed — they love to have competition in the handset market. It’s always better to have more choices for the customers.
Orange to launch new roaming app next month (France)
Mobile operator Orange France is looking to launch the Orange Travel App that will allow owners of Android, iOS and BlackBerry devices to track their data usage and SMS details in real-time, as per a report by Mobile Magazine. They can then compare this within the app to their local tariff plans to ensure they have not exceeded their allowances. The app was launched in France last year and has already attracted more than 15,000 downloads.
The report reveals that the app was initially looking at a summer launch but with might be released as early as next month. The roaming bundle will offer daily, weekly or monthly tariffs incorporating voice, SMS and data. For example, customers travelling in France will be able to buy a bundle that includes 10 minutes of voice, 10 SMSes and 10MB of data for around $6.5 per day from June onwards
When the services were first launched outside of the UK, Orange said it was to counteract the risks of high roaming charges. Orange executive VP for consumer mobile services Vincent Brunet said that by putting in further safety nets, they are helping customers to manage their consumption while they continue to introduce competitive offers that respond to their customers growing needs.
As per the report, Orange also plans to roll out a ‘rest of world’ alert and cap for customers travelling outside of the European Union. As customers approach their data limit, they will receive an SMS alert and can then choose to purchase more data or be cut off when the limit is reached.
Ericsson wins LTE contract with SoftBank Mobile (Japan, Sweden)
Video-sharing and streaming in high definition, facilitated mobility and richer multimedia content, enhanced security and improved latency are one of the many advantages that LTE users could enjoy. And soon SoftBank Mobile’s subscribers will be able to share these advantages, thanks to a new LTE network contract signed by SoftBank Mobile with Ericsson. The Ericsson network will cover Japan’s major cities – Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya – which together account for 70 percent of the country’s total data and voice traffic. SoftBank Mobile is currently Japan’s third-largest mobile operator, with more than 29 million subscribers.
Ericsson will upgrade SoftBank Mobile’s packet core network, including systems integration and deployment of an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) solution, and build a new LTE radio access network using RBS 6000 multi-standard base stations. This will allow SoftBank Mobile users to experience the best possible networks in one of the world’s most densely populated areas such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya.
Junichi Miyakawa, Executive Vice President, Director and CTO of SoftBank Mobile Corp., says that to fulfill their customers’ expectations, they continue to improve their networks. With LTE, customers get increased speed and decreased latency, while they will enjoy a wide range of new services and applications. With Ericsson’s support, they will be able to offer their customers high quality LTE services.
Jan Signell, President of Ericsson Japan, said that during 2012, many new smartphones, notebooks and tablets with LTE capabilities will be launched in Japan. This will lead to a strong increase in consumer demand for higher data speeds and throughput – a demand that SoftBank Mobile will be able to meet thanks to the state-of-the-art LTE network that we will rapidly deploy.
Ericsson has signed 45 LTE/EPC contracts in 23 countries on five continents. The global LTE population coverage is 325 million, of which 215 million are covered by Ericsson networks. LTE, the next generation of mobile communication technology, enables the fast transfer of huge amounts of data in an efficient and cost-effective way, optimizing the use of the frequency spectrum. With increased speed and decreased latency, consumers can enjoy a wide range of applications – such as lag-free web browsing, online gaming, social media and video conferencing – effortlessly, while on the move. LTE will meet the demands of new and enhanced mobile internet applications of the future.
Ericsson continues to drive open standards and has had the greatest influence on the LTE specifications released to date. Ericsson expects to hold 25 percent of all essential patents related to LTE, which will make it the standard’s largest single patent holder.
