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Tag: Gartner

  • 3D Printed Organs May Cause Moral Quandaries In The Future

    One of the most promising uses of 3D printing is the creation of human tissue and organs. Proponents of the technology believe that we may one day be able to grow transplantable organs in the lab bypassing the lengthy donor process. It seems like a win-win situation for everybody, but Gartner thinks somebody will spoil the fun sooner or later.

    In a new report out today, Gartner predicts that bioprinting will mature by 2015 which will increase demand for printed organs. In the following year, it expects the practice of 3D printing organs to spark ethical debates, much like the debates around stem cell research.

    “3D bioprinting facilities with the ability to print human organs and tissue will advance far faster than general understanding and acceptance of the ramifications of this technology,” said Pete Basiliere, research director at Gartner. “These initiatives are well-intentioned, but raise a number of questions that remain unanswered. What happens when complex ‘enhanced’ organs involving nonhuman cells are made? Who will control the ability to produce them? Who will ensure the quality of the resulting organs?”

    Despite the debates that may arise around the practice, Gartner expects demand to explode once the technology matures. The firm thinks emerging markets will be especially interested in 3D printed organs as its offers a cost-effective alternative to traditional organ transplants.

    Besides organs, Gartner expects 3D printing to continually challenge the status quo in retail and manufacturing. It predicts that seven of the world’s top 10 multichannel retailers will use 3D printers to fulfill custom orders. It also expects businesses built exclusively on 3D printers to become more common in the next few years.

    “Some retailers are already selling 3D printers to consumers, and as they become more readily available, consumers could use them to ‘manufacture’ their own custom-designed products,” said Miriam Burt, research vice president at Gartner. “We also expect to see 3D copying services and 3D printing bureaus emerge where customers bring 3D models to a retailer or provider and have increasingly high-end parts and designs printed, not just in plastics but in materials including ceramics, stainless steel, and cobalt and titanium alloys.”

    Of course, we can’t have a discussion of 3D printing without the intellectual property hawks claiming that the technology will lead to at least $100 billion in losses annually related to IP theft.

    “The very factors that foster innovation — crowdsourcing, R&D pooling and funding of start-ups — coupled with shorter product life cycles, provide a fertile ground for intellectual property theft using 3D printers,” said Mr. Basiliere. “Already, it’s possible to 3D print many items, including toys, machine and automotive parts, and even weapons.”

    While it’s certainly true that 3D printers can replicate a wide variety of things, it’s hard to believe that the technology will suddenly become a breeding ground for IP theft. The only way that could ever happen is if the manufacturers of the world ignore 3D printing in favor of outdated manufacturing techniques. Toy manufacturers in particular would stand to benefit from using 3D printers as soon as possible to prevent others from making cheap, accurate knockoffs with the technology.

    That being said, it’s easy to agree with Gartner’s conclusion that some knockoff products may end up being dangerous due to lack of quality assurance. In a world where guns can now be 3D printed, people may end up buying defective, and potentially dangerous, weapons from underground vendors.

    Image via TEDMED/YouTube

  • Gartner: 3D Printer Industry To See Massive Growth Over The Next Few Years

    There’s no denying the cool factor that 3D printers have gained over the last few years. This has led to an increase in purchases from hobbyists and other non-industry consumers. That increase is now leading to explosive growth in the industry.

    In a report out of Gartner, the tech research company says that worldwide shipments of 3D printers priced under $100,000 will grow by 49 percent in 2013. In other words, 3D printer companies will see 56,507 sub-$100,000 3D printers this year. That number is expected to double by 2015.

    “The 3D printer market has reached its inflection point,” said Pete Basiliere, research director at Gartner. “While still a nascent market, with hype outpacing the technical realities, the speed of development and rise in buyer interest are pressing hardware, software and service providers to offer easier-to-use tools and materials that produce consistently high-quality results.”

    The aforementioned hype is now a serious drive behind consumer purchases of 3D printers. Thanks to increased mainstream coverage, consumers are now more interested in 3D printing than ever before. Of course, sales from the consumer sector will still lag behind that of enterprise purchases, but it’s steadily growing as the price of desktop 3D printers continue to drop.

    In fact, consumer spending on 3D printers will reach nearly $87 million in 2013 while the enterprise market will spend $325 million on 3D printers. In 2014, consumer spending is expected to reach $133 million while enterprise spending will rise to $536 million.

    “The hype around consumer 3D printing has made enterprises aware that the price point and functionality of 3DP has changed significantly over the last five years, driving increased shipments beginning in 2014,” said Mr. Basiliere. “Most businesses are only now beginning to fully comprehend all of the ways in which a 3DP can be cost-effectively used in their organizations, from prototyping and product development to fixtures and molds that are used to manufacture or assemble an item to drive finished goods. Now that many people in the organization, not only the engineering and manufacturing department managers but also senior corporate management, marketing management and others, have heard the hype, they want to know when the business will have a 3D printer.”

    Gartner also predicts that seven of the 50 largest multinational retailers will carry 3D printers by 2015. We’re already seeing the start of this today with Staples, UPS and Microsoft Stores all carrying 3D printers for consumers and enterprise.

    “Major multinational physical and online retailers have the means to market the technology to consumers and enterprise buyers, generating demand for the devices and revenue by selling printers and supplies, as well as from sales of individual 3D-printed pieces,” said Mr. Basiliere. “Office superstore Staples is already in the market, and other superstores and consumer goods retailers, such as Yamada Denki, are prime candidates to sell printers and finished 3D printed items. Their presence in the market will have an impact on average selling prices, forcing providers into low-margin sales of consumer 3DP by 2017.”

    This research is definitely interesting, but it fails to take the explosion of cheap 3D printers hitting Kickstarter and Indiegogo into account. This new avenue of obtaining cheap 3D printers is getting more printers into the hands of consumers than ever before. Hell, we’re now at the point where a 3D printer only costs $100. If this trend continues, we may see major manufacturers like MakerBot and 3D Systems lowering their prices to better compete with the independent makers.

    [Image: makerbot/YouTube]

  • PC Shipments Decline For Another Quarter, Lenovo Tops Manufacturer List

    After a dismal holiday season for the PC market, PC shipments continued to decline throughout the first quarter of 2013. Analysts do not predict that PC sales will return to 2012 levels any time soon.

    Now, PC shipment numbers are out for the second quarter of 2012, and the story is much the same. Analyst firm Gartner estimates that worldwide PC shipments reached only 76 million units in the second quarter of 2013, down 10.9% from the second quarter of 2012.

    “We are seeing the PC market reduction directly tied to the shrinking installed base of PCs, as inexpensive tablets displace the low-end machines used primarily for consumption in mature and developed markets,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “In emerging markets, inexpensive tablets have become the first computing device for many people, who at best are deferring the purchase of a PC. This is also accounting for the collapse of the mini notebook market.”

    While PC makers Acer and Asus saw double-digit declines in PC shipments, Lenovo only saw a slight 0.6% decline in shipments. The company is now the world’s top PC manufacturer with a 16.7% market share. Lenovo overtook HP, which saw a 4.8% decline in worldwide PC shipments. In the U.S. PC market declines have been less severe, with Lenovo even registering a 19.7% increase in its U.S. shipments over 2012.

    PC manufacturers, and particularly HP, are now looking to the end of Windows XP support in 2014 as a possible boost to sales of new PCs. HP has estimated that as many as 40% of businesses are still running XP, which is now well over a decade old.

    “Our preliminary results indicate that this reduced market decline was attributed to solid growth in the professional market,” Ms. Kitagawa said. “Three of the major professional PC suppliers, HP, Dell and Lenovo, all registered better than U.S. average growth rate. The end of Windows XP support potentially drove the remaining PC refresh in the U.S. professional market.”

  • Android To Hit 1 Billion Device Shipments This Year

    Google is fiercely proud of Android. That much was apparent when the company announced at its annual developer conference that over 900 million Android devices had been activated since its introduction in 2008. At the time, Google said it was just the beginning for Android, and a recent study agrees.

    Gartner released a study today that predicts what the electronic device market will look like in 2013. Gartner’s Research Vice President Carolina Milanesi says that “consumers want anytime-anywhere computing that allows them to consumer and create content with ease.” In short, she says that “mobility is paramount” and that shows in Gartner’s predictions.

    First up, Gartner predicts that we’ll see over 2 billion mobile device (smartphones and tablets) shipments this year. That much is old news, but the real kicker is that over 1 billion of those mobile devices will be equipped with Google’s Android OS. If true, this will be the first time that any mobile OS has hit one billion device shipments in a year.

    Android may be named the clear winner in 2013, but its competitors will have a solid year as well. Gartner predicts that Windows will actually come in second place in total device shipments with over 378 million due to increased sales of Windows 8 PCs. Apple comes in at a comfortable third with over 350 million iOS devices to be shipped this year. RIM is the odd one out with Gartner predicting only 22 million device shipments this year.

    Android One Billion Shipments

    So, what’s driving this explosive growth in mobile devices? Gartner says it’s all about lower prices and better hardware:

    “The increased availability of lower priced basic tablets, plus the value add shifting to software rather than hardware will result in the lifetimes of premium tablets extending as they remain active in the household for longer. We will also see consumer preferences split between basic tablets and ultramobile devices,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “With mobile phones, volume expectations for 2013 have been brought down as the life cycles lengthen as consumers wait for new models and lower prices to hit the market in the Fall and holiday season. The challenge in the smartphone market is also that, as penetration moves more and more to the mass market, price points are lowering and in most cases so do margins.”

    Interestingly enough, Gartner also says that consumer electronics will become more consumer oriented as more businesses implement BYOD policies. In other words, companies will now have to design more for consumer markets as companies are increasingly no longer asking for enterprise editions of smartphones.

    The main takeaway from all of this is that mobile is going nowhere. In fact, the market is only going to expand as more emerging markets start to buy up smartphones and tablets. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more than 3 billion devices sold worldwide by 2014.

  • Mobile Phone Sales Declined Slightly in 2012, Shows Report

    Mobile Phone Sales Declined Slightly in 2012, Shows Report

    Business analyst Gartner today released its 2012 mobile phone sales estimates, reporting a 1.7% decline in overall mobile phone sales from 2011.

    Even with the decline, though, customers bought 1.75 billion phones last year and smartphone sales in particular were up over 38%. Gartner analysts predict that nearly 1 billion smartphones will be sold in 2013. Feature phones, on the other hand, are quickly falling out of vogue. Sales of low-cost feature phones were down 19.3% in 2012.

    “The last time the worldwide mobile phone market declined was in 2009,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Tough economic conditions, shifting consumer preferences, and intense market competition weakened the worldwide mobile phone market this year.”

    Predictably, Apple and Samsung led the smartphone market, and now control over half of smartphone market share. Samsung, with its variety of Android handsets ranging from low-cost to the premium Galaxy line-up, now leads the market.

    Chinese manufacturers are gaining ground, though. Similar to a report last week from analyst Canalys, Gartner shows that Huawei is now the the third largest seller of smartphones, and ZTE is now fourth in worldwide mobile phone sales. Huawei’s sales were up 73.8% from 2011.

    “There is no manufacturer that can firmly lay claim to the No. 3 spot in global smartphone sales,” said Gupta. “The success of Apple and Samsung is based on the strength of their brands as much as their actual products. Their direct competitors, including those with comparable products, struggle to achieve the same brand appreciation among consumers, who, in a tough economic environment, go for cheaper products over brand.”

  • Samsung Bought More Semiconductors Than Apple in 2012

    Samsung Bought More Semiconductors Than Apple in 2012

    It’s no secret that Samsung is quickly catching up to Apple in the mobile market. While Apple painstakingly designs each of their devices and sells millions of each, Samsung has taken a more experimental approach, releasing a myriad of mobile devices of every size and type.

    Samsung’s strategy is strikingly reflected in the number of semiconductors bought by the Korean manufacturer. According to research firm Gartner, Samsung surpassed Apple last year to become the largest customer of semiconductors in the world. While Apple and Samsung were nearly tied for semiconductor purchases in 2011, Samsung last year bought a full 8% of the world’s semiconductors – $23.9 billion worth. Apple last year bought $21.4 billion worth for a 7.2% share of the world’s purchases.

    “Although Samsung and Apple continue to go from strength to strength, other leading electronic equipment makers fared less well, and six of the top 10 reduced their demand in 2012,” said Masatsune Yamaji, principal research analyst at Gartner. “In addition to a weak macroeconomic situation, a dramatic change in consumer demand contributed to a reduction in semiconductor demand in 2012. The PC market still represented the largest sector for chip demand, but desktop and mobile PCs did not sell well, as consumers’ interest shifted to new mobile computing devices like smartphones and media tablets. This shift caused a substantial decrease in semiconductor demand in 2012, as the semiconductor content of a smartphone or a media tablet is far less than that of a PC.”

    Overall there was a 3% drop in sales for semiconductors in 2012. Companies such as HP, Dell, and Toshiba saw their orders for semiconductors drop by billions of dollars. Sony managed to increase its orders by 1.9% and Lenovo increased its orders slightly.

  • Mobile Ads Could Rake in $11.4 Billion in 2013

    A new Gartner report estimates that worldwide mobile advertising revenue could reach $11.4 billion in 2013. That would be greater than an 18% increase from 2012, which saw $9.6 billion in mobile ad revenue. The analyst also predicts that worldwide mobile ad revenue will reach $24.5 billion in 2016.

    “The mobile advertising market took off even faster than we expected due to an increased uptake in smartphones and tablets, as well as the merger of consumer behaviors on computers and mobile devices,” said Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner. “Growth in mobile advertising comes in part at the expense of print formats, especially local newspapers, which currently face much lower ad yields as a result of mobile publishing initiatives.”

    Japan and South Korea, with their large mobile adoption rate, currently have a lead in mobile advertising. Gartner predicts, however, that China and India will increasingly drive mobile ad growth. Also, as mobile ads become more integrated into large ad campaigns, it is predicted that the U.S. and Europe will catch up to Asia by shifting ad spending away from print and radio.

    “Smartphones and media tablets extend the addressable market for mobile advertising in more and more geographies as an increasing population of users spends an increasing share of its time with these devices,” said Andrew Frank, research vice president at Gartner. “This market will therefore become easier to segment and target, driving the growth of mobile advertising spend for brands and advertisers. Mobile advertising should be integrated into advertisers’ overall marketing campaigns in order to connect with their audience in very specific, actionable ways through their smartphones and/or tablets.”

    Gartner warns, though, that ad inventory is growing significantly faster than advertisers can shift their spending. The analyst firm compares “paid discovery” advertising by app makers to early web advertising, and states that it creates “an inflated picture of revenue that may ultimately prove to be a bubble.”

    “Some correction in the growth rate must occur before demand from brand and local advertisers catches up with supply, and more sustainable economics support a faster growth rate commensurate with consumer adoption,” said Baghdassarian.

  • PC Sales Dropping, Shows Yet Another Report

    Last week, a report from International Data Corporation (IDC) showed that PC shipments during the fourth quarter of 2012 declined by around 6.4% from the fourth quarter of 2011. Now, analyst firm Gartner has weighed in on the PC market with similar statistics.

    Gartner’s research shows a 4.9% decline in PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2012 when compared to the same quarter in 2011. The firm went even further than IDC, all but stating that this is a harbinger of the predicted post-PC era.

    “Tablets have dramatically changed the device landscape for PCs, not so much by ‘cannibalizing’ PC sales, but by causing PC users to shift consumption to tablets rather than replacing older PCs,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “Whereas as once we imagined a world in which individual users would have both a PC and a tablet as personal devices, we increasingly suspect that most individuals will shift consumption activity to a personal tablet, and perform creative and administrative tasks on a shared PC. There will be some individuals who retain both, but we believe they will be exception and not the norm. Therefore, we hypothesize that buyers will not replace secondary PCs in the household, instead allowing them to age out and shifting consumption to a tablet.”

    Much like the IDC report, Gartner shows that the launch of Windows 8 did not re-energize the PC market the way Microsoft may have hoped. Also, HP is once again leading PC shipments worldwide, with Lenovo following close behind.

    “The PC market continues to face many headwinds. The launch of Windows 8 had no impact on PC demand, especially as ultramobile products were both limited in supply, as well as being priced too high,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “The holiday season mostly saw retailers clearing Windows 7 notebook inventory or driving volume of low-end notebooks. Furthermore, the increasing choice of tablets at decreasing price points no doubt became a favorite Christmas present ahead of PCs.”

  • Most TVs To Be Internet-Connected by 2016, Predicts Analyst

    The tech research firm Gartner is predicting that almost 85% of all flat-panel TVs made in 2016 will be internet-enabled “smart TVs.” Worldwide production of “smart” flat-panel TVs is also predicted rise to 198 million units in 2016, up 35% from 2012’s 69 million units.

    While manufacturers will be excited enough about the new technology to increase production, it is not predicted that consumer demand will rise at the same rate. Gartner’s new report suggests that manufacturers will have to offer “compelling reasons” for consumers to choose their brand.

    “In the end, the choice may be all about the extra content that one TV brand offers over another,” said Paul O’Donovan, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Consumers will be asking questions such as, which Internet TV services can the TV access? Are these the sites I think are valuable? Can I use my smartphone or tablet with this TV? It is critical for the TV industry during this global economic downturn and decline in consumer confidence levels, to sustain sales and maintain or grow market share – especially in emerging markets. This is difficult when demand has slowed, so the extra functionality offered by smart TVs becomes the product differentiator – if prices are already competitive and all other variables are equal between brands.”

    These predictions follow an entire year of rumors that tech’s biggest brand, Apple, will be entering the flat-panel TV with an iOS-based HDTV. The rumors have persisted through reports that manufacturing troubles and cable company stonewalling have delayed the release of the device.

    If the cable industry continues to overvalue its content and delay the merger of computers and television, the television industry might not have the luxury of an Apple-led, iTunes-like push into a new business model. With YouTube channels now reaching subscriber numbers in the millions, traditional networks may end up regretting their stubbornness when most customers have “smart” TVs in 2016.

  • Smartphone Sales Jumped Nearly 50% in the Third Quarter of 2012

    Smartphone Sales Jumped Nearly 50% in the Third Quarter of 2012

    Research firm Gartner today released the results of it’s analysis of third quarter 2012 smartphone sales. According to its data, worldwide sales of smartphones are up 46.9% from the third quarter of 2011 and account for 39.6% of all mobile phone sales. These figures are reminiscent of shipment numbers unveiled by Canalys last week, suggesting that customers are buying smartphones nearly as fast as smartphone manufacturers can ship them.

    This huge growth in the smartphone market happened despite a 3.1% decline in the worldwide sales of all mobile phones. 428 million mobile phones were sold in the third quarter of 2012.

    “After two consecutive quarter of decline in mobile phone sales, demand has improved in both mature and emerging markets as sales increased sequentially,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. “In China, sales of mobile phones grew driven by sales of smartphones, while demand of feature phones remained weak. In mature markets, we finally saw replacement sales pick up with the launch of new devices in the quarter.”

    The unsurprising winners in the race to sell mobile phones were Apple and Samsung, whose combined market share is 46.5% according to Gupta. In particular, Samsung saw a surge in the third quarter, shipping nearly 98 million mobile devices – a 18.6% increase in market share from the third quarter of 2011. Apple increased its mobile phone sales market share by around 1.6%. Interestingly, Chinese manufacturers such as ZTE, Huawei Device, and TCL Communication also saw their market shares increase slightly over the past year.

    The familiar losers were also all accounted for in Gartner’s chart. Nokia, RIM, HTC, and Motorola failed to compete well with Apple and Samsung, losing mobile device market share. In particular, Nokia saw a huge decline, with its mobile phone sales declining 21.9% in the third quarter 2012. It lost 4.7% of its global mobile device sales market share, and dropped to seventh place in Gartner’s smartphone sales estimates.

  • Worldwide Mobile Payments to Hit $171 Billion in 2012

    The IT analysts at Gartner, Inc. have announced that worldwide mobile payment transaction values will reach $171.5 billion this year. That is a 61.9% increase over 2011. The number of mobile payment users will also significantly increase this year, hitting at least 212 million users.

    “We expect global mobile transaction volume and value to average 42 percent annual growth between 2011 and 2016, and we are forecasting a market worth $617 billion with 448 million users by 2016,” said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. “This will bring opportunities for service and solution providers who will need to cater to the local demand patterns to customize their offerings.”

    Gartner said the mobile payments market would remain “fragmented” for at least the next two years, with local markets using a variety of technology and business models. In addition, different regulations around the world will prevent consolidation of the market.

    “There will be a few global players that have the scale and resources to serve large customers and the mass market whose requirements can be readily satisfied by standard solutions,” Shen said. “However, there will always be segments that cannot be sufficiently served by the global players. The demand of these segments can only be satisfied by specialized or local players who can better understand the segment and have specific solutions to meet the unique challenges.”

    Though NFC technologies are beginning to proliferate into the smartphone market, Gartner predicts that mobile payments using the technology will remain low until 2015. In the meantime, SMS will remain the dominant technology in developing mobile markets and Web/WAP will continue to be highly used in North America and Europe.

    “NFC payment involves a change in user behavior and requires collaboration among stakeholders that includes banks, mobile carriers, card networks and merchants,” said Shen. “It takes time for both to happen, so we don’t expect NFC payments to come into the mass market before 2015. In the meantime, ticketing, rather than retail payment, will drive NFC transactions.”

  • Global IT Spending To Top $3 Trillion In 2011

    Global IT spending is forecast to reach $3.6 trillion in 2011, a 5.1 percent increase from 2010, according to a new report by Gartner.

    In 2010, worldwide IT spending totaled $3.4 trillion, up 5.4 percent from 2009.

     

    Global-IT-Spending

     

    Gartner has raised its outlook for 2011 global IT spending from its previous forecast of 3.5 percent growth. In 2010, the IT industry performed better than Gartner’s previous forecast of 3.2 percent growth.

    “Aided by favorable U.S. dollar exchange rates, global IT spending growth is expected to exceed 5 percent in 2010, but a similar level of growth in 2011 — while forecast — is far from certain, given continued macroeconomic uncertainty," said Richard Gordon, research vice president at Gartner.

    "While the global economic situation is improving, the recovery is slow and hampered by a sluggish growth outlook in the important mature economies of the U.S. and Western Europe. There are also growing concerns about the ability of key emerging economies to sustain relatively high growth rates. Nevertheless, as well as a fundamental enabler of cost reduction and cost optimization, investment in IT is seen increasingly as an important element in business growth strategies. As the global economy repairs itself in coming years, we are optimistic about continued healthy spending on IT."

    The telecom equipment market is poised for the strongest growth in 2011, with worldwide telecom equipment spending forecast to grow 9.1 percent.

    The computing hardware segment is forecast to grow 7.5 percent in 2011, but Gartner analysts said vendors face possible challenges, particularly in the area of PC growth, given likely weak economic growth through the first half of 2011.

     

  • Distinction Between Email And Social Networks Eroding

    The popularity of social networking services, along with changing demographics and work styles, will lead 20 percent of employees to use social networks as a main business communication tool by 2014, according to a new report from Gartner.

    Monica-Basso With Facebook expected to launch its own email service on Monday, analysts at Gartner seem to be right on target.

    “In the past, organizations supported collaboration through e-mail and highly structured applications only,” said Monica Basso, research vice president at Gartner.

    “Today, social paradigms are converging with e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and presence, creating new collaboration styles. However, a truly collaborative, effective and efficient workplace will not arise until organizations make these capabilities widely available and users become more comfortable with them. Technology is only an enabler; culture is a must for success.”

    While microblogging is reshaping enterprise communications, business communications are evolving. Newer employees will enter the workforce with a predisposition to communicate via a social network, but they will use e-mail in parallel.

    “The rigid distinction between e-mail and social networks will erode,” Ms. Basso said. “E-mail will take on many social attributes, such as contact brokering, while social networks will develop richer e-mail capabilities.”

    Vendors such as Microsoft and IBM will add links to internal and external social networks from within e-mail clients and servers, making services such as contacts, calendars and tasks shareable across e-mail and social networks. By 2012, Gartner said contact lists, calendars and messaging clients in any smartphones will be social-enabled applications.

    Collaboration is slowly moving to the cloud, and Gartner analysts expect to see steep growth rates for sales of premises- and cloud-based social networking services. Organizations will use hybrid models where some services live on-premises and some are in the cloud. Gartner predicts that the percentage of e-mail accounts on cloud services will grow to 10 percent by year-end 2012, up 7 percent from 2009.

    From a vendor’s perspective, the market is consolidating around Microsoft and Research In Motion (RIM), the two market leaders. Gartner forecasts that by 2012, RIM and Microsoft will own 80 percent of the enterprise wireless e-mail software market.

    “The reality is that mobile collaboration will increase for all categories of workers, and organizations can either take the lead, or be led by their users,” said Ms. Basso.

    “The most progressive organizations won’t be afraid to explore the innovative communications and collaboration models enabled by new devices and social services allow their employees to generate innovative ideas by experimenting with them.”

     

  • Gartner Names Android Number Two Mobile OS Of 2010

    According to a new report, Android will soon secure a spot as the number two mobile operating system worldwide, passing Research In Motion.  What’s more, Gartner, which prepared the report, has Android poised to take the overall lead from Symbian in 2015.

    Let’s cover the near-term figures first.  Gartner believes Android will exit 2010 with a market share of 17.7 percent, just ahead of Research In Motion’s 17.5 percent.  Symbian, meanwhile, is supposed to hold a market share of 40.1 percent.

    Then Android should experience a period of (continued) rapid growth, increasing its market share to 22.2 percent in 2011 and 29.6 percent in 2014.  And that should put it within striking distance of Symbian, which Gartner claims will have seen its market share shrink to 30.2 percent by then.

    This is all good news for Google, to say the least, considering Gartner’s reputation.  Apple fans and shareholders, meanwhile, will have to consider how happy they are with the idea of a steady market share of around 15 percent.

    Microsoft supporters will have even more thinking to do, since Gartner’s stats give it almost no chance of succeeding in the mobile market.

    Roberta Cozza, a principal research analyst at Gartner, stressed in a statement, "[W]e believe that market share in the OS space will consolidate around a few key OS providers that have the most support from CSPs and developers and strong brand awareness with consumer and enterprise customers."

  • Gartner Finds Android Outsells iOS Worldwide

    There’s more good news for Google and the specific teams that support Android this morning.  Gartner’s released some stats concerning the sales of smartphones in the second quarter of this year, and it looks like Android has become the number three mobile operating system in that respect.

    Gartner explained in an official statement, "In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Android expanded rapidly in the second quarter of 2010, overtaking Apple’s iPhone OS to become the third-most-popular OS in the world."

    As the table below shows, Android will secure second place if current trends sustain themselves for any length of time, too.

    What’s more, setting aside all the global data, Gartner indicated, "In the U.S, [Android] also overtook RIM’s OS to become the No. 1 smartphone OS in this region."

    It’s hard to imagine how things could go any better for Google.  The only thing the search giant has to worry about is the fact that the iPhone 4’s launch isn’t covered by this data (it occurred after the end of the second quarter), and that represents a significant opportunity for the iOS to regain some ground.

    The third quarter should be a very important period for Google (and Apple), then, perhaps determining the shape of the smartphone market for at least a year or two.

  • Android Tops Windows Mobile Worldwide

    Even if Google prefers to name different versions of Android after tasty desserts, the mobile operating system is still doing a good imitation of a simple snowball rolling downhill.  A new report from Gartner indicates Android’s even grown to the point that it’s beaten Windows Mobile in terms of sales on a worldwide basis.

    Gartner pegged Android’s sales at 1.6 percent of the smartphone market for the first quarter of 2009.  For the first quarter of 2010, that figure was 9.6 percent, instead, which works out to an increase of 600 percent in the space of one year.

    Meanwhile, Windows Mobile’s sales decreased from 10.2 percent to 6.8 percent of the total, allowing Android to take fourth place.  And the iPhone OS’s share of sales didn’t increase by quite as much, bringing Android somewhat closer to third.

    Apple and Android are, despite their third- and fourth-place finishes, arguably the winners here, too.  Gartner observed in a statement, "Android and Apple were the only two OSs vendors among the top five to increase market share year-on-year.  Symbian remained in the No. 1 position but continued to lose as Nokia remains weak in the high-end portfolio."

    Android and the iPhone OS are still a long way from the top, though, meaning Google may have to work its way through a lot more desserts before displacing another competitor.

  • Consumers Expected to Spend $6.2 Billion on Mobile Apps in 2010

    Gartner has released some research findings that indicate consumers will spend $6.2 billion in 2010 in mobile application stores. Meanwhile, advertising revenue is expected to generate $0.6 billion worldwide.

    According to Gartner, mobile app stores will exceed 4.5 billion downloads in 2010, eight out of ten of which will be free. Gartner also forecasts worldwide downloads in mobile application stores to surpass 21.6 billion by 2013, and free downloads to account for 82% of all downloads in 2010 (87% in 2013).

    Gartner Research on Mobile Apps

    "As smartphones grow in popularity and application stores become the focus for several players in the value chain, more consumers will experiment with application downloads," said Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner. "Games remain the No. 1 application, and mobile shopping, social networking, utilities and productivity tools continue to grow and attract increasing amounts of money."

    "Growth in smartphone sales will not necessarily mean that consumers will spend more money, but it will widen the addressable market for an offering that will be advertising-funded," added Baghdassarian. "The value chain of the application stores will evolve as rules are set and broken in an attempt to find the most profitable business model for all parties involved."

    "Application stores will be a core focus throughout 2010 for the mobile industry and applications themselves will help determine the winner among mobile devices platforms," said Carolina Milanesi, another research director at Gartner. "Consumers will have a wide choice of stores and will seek the ones that make it easy for them to discover applications they are interested in and make it easy to pay for them when they have to. Developers will have to consider carefully not only which platform to support but also which store to promote their applications in."

    Some of Gartners numbers have been brought into question by another research firm, comScore. In reference to a Gartner claim that Apple App Store downloads accounted for 99.4% of all mobile app downloads in 2009,  comScore analyst Alistair Hill is quoted as saying, "I think somebody’s missed something out on the maths there…I find that hard to believe. We know iPhone users buy a lot more apps than anybody else, but that still doesn’t work."

    Still, we haven’t seen anything solid to dispute the claim. But we might see something surface soon.

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