In our view, a majority of current social ads are just ads on social platforms rather than social-enabled ads. These advertisements seem to boast no prominent differences with display ads on other online platforms (e.g. portals), which are primarily delivered on the back of user reach and visits. Currently, social-oriented platforms still do not seem to have efficiently leveraged the social/interest graphs of their users, although some pioneers (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) have been actively testing new ad formats to target better.
The State of Facebook Ads on Graph Search
Facebook launched a user-focused search service, Graph Search, in January this year, allowing users to search for the friends, locations, pictures and interests of a specific Facebook user. Three months after its launch, the company reportedly has begun to test Graph Search-based advertising. Unlike traditional search ads Read the Full Article
MediaTek, the Fabless Innovator for communication devices is set to sell record products for Mobile and Tablet manufacturers in 2013. MediaTek’s addressable market is expanding to 1 bn emerging market smartphones and close to 800 mn sub-US$200 smartphones by 2015, with an additional opportunity in tablets at 120 mn units in 2013
MediaTek maintained its target to ramp smartphones from 110 mn to 200 mn, implying growth from 80- 85 mn in 1H13 to 115-120 mn in 2H13 but also is optimistic on tablets, which it now sees reaching 10-15 mn units, up from the prior 5-10 mn and consistent with our latest report on the ramping whitebox tablet market. Read the Full Article
Given incremental market potential in China and India and significantly heightened risk of cannibalization and margin dilution for Apple in the United States and Europe, Apple plans to launch Lower cost iPhone in emerging markets only to take on Samsung and other Android Mobiles .
Internally, analysts expect the lower Cost iPhone to garner ~30% share in the $190-300 price segment, less than existing iPhone’s 40-55% share in the high-end segment, due to greater competition from other incumbents (many of them local) in the $190-300 price band. We assume that Apple will work with more distributors and retailers in emerging markets in addition to its own stores to further expand its presence in the region. Read the Full Article
Samsung Mobiles India has become the new leader in the Indian SmartPhone market replacing the Arrogant and Non Indian Friendly Nokia Mobiles. According to release by Gartner, Samsung Now has a 40% market-share of SmartPhones in India followed by Blackberry at 7.2%, Nokia 7%, HTC 5% , Sony 3%, LG 2%, Apple iPhone 1.5% and others have the rest.
Samsung has managed to increase its smartphone share in India from around 15% in Q111 to over 40% most recently driven by the success of range of Galaxy smartphones. Samsung increased its smartphone market share by shipping an estimated 68 million smartphones. Apple has changed its marketing strategy in India after the launch of iPhone 5 and has captured good amount of Revenue Market Share in India though volumes are still low. Nokia lost the market due to absence of innovation and Third Rate Customer Service and Looking Down Upon Indian Mobile Buyers compared to Europeans.
The following chart Read the Full Article
With EDGE smartphone retail price hitting US$50 in early 2013, we expect low end smartphone to cannibalize feature phone in a meaningful way, leading to a much higher than expected smartphone shipment in 2013.
Gartner broke down handset price by 3 segments: Premium Communication Device (ASP around US$340), Basic Communication Device (ASP around US$100), Utility Communication Device (ASP around US$30).
According to Gartner, smartphone shipment in developed markets will reach 345M units in 2013. For worldwide smartphone to hit 1.1 Bn units in 2013, total emerging market smartphone need to hit around 755M units in 2013.
In the Longer term, smartphone market may become more specialized as under,
Whitebox & Chinese brand to win the sub US$200 segment – With their low fixed cost and low gross margin requirement, we expect whitebox / Chinese brands also launch a large number of sub-US$200 models with relatively high end specification.
Internet / Software companies to lead the US$200-400 segment As we stated earlier, most internet / software companies Read the Full Article
With tablets and smartphones increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives, clients are recognizing the need to offer similar level of customer engagement across these platforms. This trend of going “mobile” has presented significant new opportunities for services companies – ranging from design and development of mobile applications to specialized security and support on these platforms.
As revenues are under pressure, clients are seen as reluctant to lag behind on customer centric trends. In this context, many of these mobility projects are no longer seen as fully discretionary in nature. For example, developing a mobile banking application is not a choice for a bank, it is a necessity. Read the Full Article
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