Research News

Nearly half (47%) of South Koreans polled intend to purchase a smartphone within the next six months, according to the results of a consumer survey conducted this year among 1000 South Koreans by ABI Research. South Koreans already own an average of 1.6 mobile devices each, and are among the world’s must enthusiastic consumers of new mobile technologies, upgrading their devices frequently. “South Koreans are keen adopters of mobile money services,” notes practice director Neil Strother, “using mobile devices to do banking (a very high 69% of respondents), and pay bills (40%). Curiously, though, most South Koreans have little confidence in the security of their mobile phones: only 7% believed they were completely or very secure, while 59% r ...

In what ABI Research sees as a significant shift in component sourcing strategy, Samsung has chosen Via Telecom to supply the CDMA chipset for new Droid “CHARGE” handset that it is providing to the US market via Verizon. This may represent the first salvo of a market assault on Qualcomm’s long-undisputed command of CDMA markets in the US and elsewhere. In addition to the Via Telecom CDMA chip, Samsung is using its own proprietary baseband chip for the LTE. According to vice president of engineering James Mielke, “We have been following Samsung’s decision-making closely for some time, and we see a trend towards using suppliers from closer to home, in the East-Asia region. For example, the RF for both CDMA and LTE in this phone is supplied b ...

In what ABI Research sees as a significant shift in component sourcing strategy, Samsung has chosen Taiwanese vendor Via Technologies to supply the CDMA chipset for new Droid “CHARGE” handset that it is supplying to the US market via Verizon. This may represent the first salvo of a market assault on Qualcomm’s long-undisputed command of CDMA markets in the US and elsewhere. In addition to the Via Technologies CDMA chip, Samsung is using its own proprietary baseband chip for the LTE. According to vice president of engineering James Mielke, “We have been following Samsung’s decision-making closely for some time, and we see a trend towards using suppliers from closer to home, in the East-Asia region. For example, the RF for both CDMA and LTE ...

The Asia-Pacific region will lead set-top box growth for the next five years, with shipments approaching 50% of the set-top boxes sold worldwide in 2013-2015 before falling off slightly.  Established players delivering cable boxes to China, including Jiuzhou and Coship, stand to gain in market share as unit shipments and ASP increase in Asia.  Huawei (through Huawei Devices) is also engaging service providers in the region, and ABI Research expects they will see success in this market. According to practice director Jason Blackwell, “This trend, in which Asia-Pacific countries see continued strong STB adoption, is driven by the completion of digital transitions in North America and Western Europe, coupled with the digitization of cable sys ...

Mobile advertising and mobile money services are making strong inroads among China’s newly affluent classes, according to a new consumer survey from ABI Research. This punctures the conventional thinking that strong consumer response to mobile advertising and the use of mobile devices for financial transactions are limited to mature North American and European markets. The online survey of 1,000 Chinese consumers was conducted in March-April 2011. (Note that given the online nature of the survey, the sample cohort is entirely drawn from the technology-enabled part of the Chinese population.) According to practice director Neil Strother, “Respondents were asked to indicate what actions they had taken as a result of clicking on an ad display ...

Despite the 2008-2009 economic setbacks, the RFID market rebounded nicely in 2010, growing slightly more than 14% to reach roughly $5.3 billion. When automobile immobilization hardware is extracted from the total, the market grew close to 18%, capturing nearly $4.4 billion. ABI Research’s ongoing research and data collection efforts reveal a projected total market size of nearly $6 billion in 2011, reflecting slightly more than 11% growth. The 2011 forecast without automobile immobilization is $5 billion, growing in excess of 14% over 2010. ABI Research foresees variation in demand and the pace of adoption between applications, verticals, regions and technologies, with the retail apparel sector in particular displaying something of a slowd ...

Semiconductors are at the heart of modern electronics and central to ABI Research’s market intelligence services. ABI Research is pleased to announce the addition of another semiconductor expert – Terence Soh – to its team of experienced analysts, as Principal Analyst, Semiconductors. Based in ABI Research’s Singapore office, Soh will initially focus on mobile device and mobile handset semiconductor current market performance data and forecasts, and on vendor competitive analysis. He has broad industry experience in the fields of mobile communications, automotive, and semiconductors where he has held various positions in Ramp;D, marketing and project management, in technology companies such as Motorola, Delphi, Fujitsu Microelectronics an ...

This spring, Samsung launched the Galaxy S II, a new flagship member of its Android smartphone lineup. As part of its new Teardown Research Service, ABI Research has dismantled, analyzed, and tested the device down to the component level. The conclusion? If you are looking to keep up with the latest technology in 2011, the Galaxy S II is a good place to start. According to ABI Research vice president of engineering James Mielke,  “Samsung started from scratch with this phone: almost every component is new. Its application processor is the most powerful on the market at present. It is the first to use the Samsung Exynos 4210 dual-core application processor (a competitor to NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2). The name Exynos combines Greek words fo ...

Many municipalities around the world are exploring the Smart City concept as a way to make themselves better places to live, work, and grow. The market for technologies that feed into and support Smart City programs and projects will grow on a global basis from $8 billion in 2010 to exceed $39 billion in 2016, accounting for $116 billion in cumulative spending during that period. How will all that money be spent? These cities may be installing municipal wireless networks, implementing e-government initiatives by providing access to city departments and initiatives through websites, integrating public transportation with intelligent transportation systems, or developing ways to cut their carbon footprints and reduce the amount of recyclable ...

Microsoft has been ranked at the top of the latest Vendor Matrix released by ABI Research. Cisco Systems and IBM Corporation claimed the second and third spots in the company’s most recent evaluation of worldwide unified communications (UC) vendors.   The Vendor Matrix is an analytical tool developed by ABI Research to provide a clear understanding of vendors’ positions in specific markets. Vendors are assessed on the important parameters of “innovation” and “implementation” across several criteria unique to each vendor matrix.   Senior analyst Subha Rama comments, “Microsoft has shown the strongest growth among UC vendors, leveraging its position as a leader in desktop applications. It has, over the years, integrated multiple solutions in ...

ABI Research announces that Craig Foster has joined the company as Senior Analyst, Home Automation Systems. ABI Research VP and Chief Research Officer Stuart Carlaw comments, “Craig has a proven skill set as an analyst that will allow us to expand our efforts in both the M2M market and the home automation space.” Foster is based at the firm’s office in Irthlingborough in the UK and will be focused on supporting ABI Research’s growing M2M and HAS customer base in Europe. As a seasoned analyst he has been quoted widely in leading industry publications including The Sunday Times, as well as featuring on “The PME Interview.” Prior to joining ABI Research, Craig worked as a market analyst for IMS Research in the UK, developing reports on the po ...

Asia-Pacific telcos are forecast to see service revenues from DSL, fiber broadband and IPTV rise from $52.5 billion in 2010 to $79.5 billion in 2016. Significant revenue growth will come from fiber broadband and IPTV services, offset slightly by some declines in broadband DSL. Cable companies in the region will see revenues decline slightly, from $51 billion to $49.5 billion, with increases in cable broadband offsetting some loss of pay-TV revenue to telco-provided IPTV and satellite. In sum, telcos will see revenue growth of 51% while cable companies see a decline of revenues by 3%. “Managers at international companies are all aware of the fabulous opportunities in Asia where population growth and economic growth meet, and the potential f ...

Continental AG has been ranked at the top of the latest Vendor Matrix released by ABI Research. Autoliv Inc. and Delphi Corporation claimed the second and third spots in the company’s new evaluation of worldwide driver assistance systems vendors, with Bosch close in fourth place. The Vendor Matrix is an analytical tool developed by ABI Research to provide a clear understanding of vendors’ positions in specific markets. Vendors are assessed on the important parameters of “innovation” and “implementation” across several criteria unique to each vendor matrix. Principal Analyst David Alexander comments, “Continental offers a wide range of ADAS features to its customers, and a flexible approach means that some clients use complete systems while ...

ABI Research projects a strong future for the development of charging infrastructures for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. A new study forecasts that by 2016, there will be nearly three million vehicle charging stations up and running worldwide, with annual revenues associated with the purchase and installation of those stations growing to nearly $13 billion that year. Practice director Larry Fisher says that governments around the world are investing in pilot projects to install public charging stations for plug-in vehicles. Some countries, notably China, Israel and Denmark, are even investing in automated battery switch stations, which trade depleted batteries in electric vehicles for fully charged batteries in a matter of minutes, ...

Qualcomm, Inc. has been ranked at the top of the latest Vendor Matrix released by ABI Research. Broadcom Corp. and Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) claimed the second and third spots in the company’s most recent evaluation of worldwide GPS IC vendors. The Vendor Matrix is an analytical tool developed by ABI Research to provide a clear understanding of vendors’ positions in specific markets. Vendors are assessed on the important parameters of “innovation” and “implementation” across several criteria unique to each vendor matrix. Senior analyst Patrick Connolly comments, “The sheer scale of Qualcomm’s embedded GPS shipments powered it to number one in the matrix. However it would be wrong to underestimate its efforts on Glonass and alternative/ ...

RFID software continues to grow in uptake and according to the latest forecasts from ABI Research, software revenues are set to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 20% through 2016. “RFID is proving its value across a wide range of verticals, from automotive to retail to healthcare,” says principal analyst Bill Arnold. “RFID tags and readers may capture real-time data, but it takes software packages to make that data useful to the organization. RFID-focused software revenue should approach $500 million in 2016.” ABI Research sees this software as belonging to two classes: “Platform” and “Line of Business (LOB).” Platforms handle the raw information and hand it off to other relevant software systems such as account ...

ABI Research has released the first part of its “Technology Barometer: Digital Living” study which surveyed 2000 consumers in the United States about consumer electronic products in their households (device type, number of devices, and brands), home networking, and connected devices. Despite the attention given to-cord cutting, this trend has not generated the momentum some (not including ABI Research) expected: in this survey only 10% of respondents did not subscribe to a pay-TV service. According to practice director Jason Blackwell, “In a relatively fragmented connected consumer electronics market, the pay-TV package is still the best means to get the widest range of content. In addition some programming such as sports and premium conte ...

In 2010, not quite $2 billion was spent on mobile advertising. In 2012, according to the latest forecasts from ABI Research, that figure will be more than $7 billion. And by 2016, the forecasts suggest that about as much money – $24 billion – will be spent on mobile advertising as is currently spent on all online advertising put together. “ABI Research’s forecasts clearly indicate a major boom in mobile advertising is on the way,” says practice director Neil Strother. “The pieces are falling into place: the technology; the behavior; and the funding (advertisers’ spending) is following. Today it’s still just a drop in the bucket by online standards – often just 2% or 3% of an organization’s overall advertising budget –  but spending on mobi ...

Global shipments of smart meters will exceed 100 million this year and forge ahead to more than 250 million by 2016, with Europe being the main constituent of this total installed base. “Robust smart meter uptake in Europe is the result of mandates legislated by European central governments, coupled with heightened development in renewables,” says ABI Research industry analyst Kelvin Chan. “North America is also experiencing a quickening deployment rate due to stimulus from the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Grant Programs).” The Asia-Pacific region has recently also seen deployments of smart meters. Australia is in the forefront in AMI deployments and New Zealand seems to be moving towards development of a national smart met ...

2010 marked a year of outstanding growth for China’s handset market: unit shipments saw a 17% increase from 2009, with smartphone shipments accounting for 11% of the total. “The smartphone growth trend is expected to continue at least through the next five years,” says ABI Research VP of Forecasting Jake Saunders. “Entry-level smartphones retailing between US$155 and US$200 will be the driving force for this growth and for the attendant subscription rate growth among Chinese handset operators. This market surge is also reshaping the handset manufacturing and distribution business model in China.” China has successfully achieved the first phase of its 3G technology deployment, completing 3G network construction in most major provinces and c ...