Research news - Page 3

**nauriceprivat** · #21 (**permalink**) 01-21-2008, 02:34 PM

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...][Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]
Screendigest states that as of December 2007, there were 1.2m Mobile TV subscribers, consisting of 1 million Orange subscribers, and 200,000 from SFR. According to their research, that put France ahead of Italy as of Christmas 07.
Apparently both Operators saw growth rates of over 40% in Q4 2007, due to them launching unlimited mobile data bundles, covering TV, music, and video services.
Screendigest also notes that these figures have been achieved using 3G networks, and if these growth rates were to stay on trend, they would not be able manageable on the current networks. Events such as the European Football Championship and the Olympics are expected to push demand even further. Screendigest doubts that a DVB-H broadcast network could be deployed nationwide before the end of 2008.

**nauriceprivat** · #22 (**permalink**) 01-22-2008, 04:27 PM

It may not have a population larger than a billion of people like India or China, but Brazil keeps growing like crazy nevertheless. At the end of 2007, 121 million Brazilians owned a mobile phone, 21.1 million or 21% more from 2006.
According to the country’s telecommunications regulator Anatel, net additions in December were a record 4.7 million, reflecting intense promotional activity in the pre-Christmas period.
Brazil’s main operator, Vivo Participacoes — which is jointly owned by Spain’s Telefonica and Portugal Telecom — ended the year with 27.7% of the local market, while Telecom Italia’s TIM Participacoes and Mexico’s America Movil owned Claro held 25.8% and 25% of the market respectively.
[Via: [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]]

**nauriceprivat** · #23 (**permalink**) 01-23-2008, 12:00 PM

According to a new report by Juniper Research - it’s the music, games and mobile TV that will contribute the most to the global mobile entertainment market which will rise from just over $20 billion in 2007 to more than $64 billion by 2012. Other mobile entertainment sectors include user-generated Content, gambling, adult and infotainment.
Mobile music will remain the largest single sector of the mobile entertainment industry over the next five years, with revenues generated to rise from nearly $9 billion in 2007 to $17.5 billion in 2012. Likewise, boosted by rapid growth in mass market “casual” titles, mobile games will retain its second-ranking with revenues expected to rise from just under $5 billion in 2007 to nearly $16 billion in 2012.
Meanwhile, strong growth is also expected from mobile TV, with many developed (and some emerging) markets launching dedicated mobile broadcast networks within the forecast period. This, plus increased adoption of streamed TV bouquets, should see the market rise from $1.4 billion in 2007 to $11.9 billion in 2012.
[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]

**nauriceprivat** · #24 (**permalink**) 01-23-2008, 11:06 PM

If you thought that little piece of plastic that lets your GSM phone get jiggy with your carrier’s network was fragile, think again. Apparently, you can cook your SIM card (GSM-only, for reasons that should be obvious) to incredible temperatures and still retrieve your stored contact info.
Two electronic engineers, Benjamin Jones and Tony Kenyon, from University College London decided to find out just how much abuse a standard SIM card can take. They collected 12 SIM cards and subjected them to intense heat. The plastic epoxy that surrounds the SIM circuitry was stripped away using acid, and the bare circuits were exposed to heat for 10 minutes - the SIM cards were then probed for data recovery.
Six of the SIM cards were heated to 356 F (180 C) and escaped with absolutely no data loss. The researchers were able to retrieve the SIM cards’ data with no rewiring.
Five SIM cards were heated to a searing 842 F (450 C), but only one of these cards was readable. Four of the SIM cards could not be read by the researcher’s circuitry probing, while the fifth SIM card served up data briefly, before heading for SIM-card heaven.
The final, 12th SIM card was heated to 1,202 F (650 C), leaving the circuitry unreadable.
The researchers note that SIM cards can definitely survive heating up to 842 F, with the stored data recoverable through fairly straight forward means. It’s also likely that SIM cards can keep data intact at temperature beyond 842 F, but will require more advanced data-retrieval techniques used by forensic investigators.
Sweet, so the next time your mobile phones battery explodes, rest assured that your SIM card and all that precious contact information will be intact. That is, as long as you have the means to recover said data.

**nauriceprivat** · #25 (**permalink**) 01-25-2008, 12:24 PM

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]
Apparently, and this could spell bad news for a lot of us out there, using a mobile before you go to sleep could stop you having a decent night’s sleep!
The study that generated these results also suggests that the radiation from them can cause headaches, insomnia, and confusion (yes, I know what you are thinking, what if I have those anyway…..!), and that REM (deep-phase sleep) can be affected.
The study was carried out by Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and Wayne State University in the US, and looked at about 70 people, including a control group - as any of you will know from school science classes, you have got to have a ‘control’ in order to be able to reference your results - although I always thought when we managed to set stuff on fire the results were pretty conclusive on their own!
Interestingly, about half the people in the study considered themselves ‘electrosensitive’ - I figured this meant they weren’t keen on music made with an [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...], but apparently not - it’s to do with getting headaches and ‘impaired cognitive function’ due to electrical radiation. Hmm.
Joking aside, the real question here is, does mobile usage have a discernable affect on your sleep, and general functioning? My take is that the study was only 70 people, not a number I would have considered to give a reliable result. I would have thought numbers in the 000’s or above would be needed, and also correlated against usage patterns. But given my track record in school chemistry classes, perhaps I better not comment!

**nauriceprivat** · #26 (**permalink**) 01-26-2008, 01:31 PM

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]
According to new research by SNAPIN software, over 60% of us in the UK are using our mobiles for just the core functions - text and voice. Apparently 30% of the respondents explained their reticence to do more by being saying their were concerned about extra charges. And 18% said they couldn’t be bothered with the instruction manual! There were also some other interesting stats too:
only 1% had ever blogged using their device

only 3% had used GPS/Sat Nav features

30% had taken and sent pictues using the camera

12% had used internet/email

These results will no doubt add weight to the argument by some analysts that their is a ‘no-frills’ market in the UK, and again their will be the inevitable call for easier-to-understand Tariffs.
Of course the one area where we have no information here is the size of the study - my younger years studying stats and surveys taught me that research where for example 60 people might ‘represent the thoughts’ of 60 million is highly likely to be inaccurate!
I think it’s fair to say Tariffs can be confusing, but set against reports like this are the fact that Nokia’s N95 ‘mini-super-computer’ for example, and likewise a slew of hi-res cameraphones, have done major volumes in most markets!
Perhaps the survey was done in only one city in the UK? I couldn’t possibly suggest which one that might, any thoughts readership…..?!

**nauriceprivat** · #27 (**permalink**) 01-28-2008, 11:54 AM

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]

… and that’s not all - books sold on Mobile generated 82 million dollars annually! It’s the first stat that amazes me though - it turns the concept of books, and how we consume them on their head (not that reading a book whilst on your head is an enjoyable experience). The whole delivery model could, if this caught on, be knocked for six (although Amazon, those wily foxes, have made their first foray in this direction with their Kindle product).

These stats came courtesy of the International Herald Tribune, but as commentary (link to article below) was added, some great points were made about the uniqueness of Mobile:

personal mass media

permanently-carried media

always-on media

the media has a built-in payment mechanism(s)

available on the point of inspiration

features the most accurate audience measurement of any media

Apparently the whole language system used in these books is also different - with text-message-speak and emoticons littering the pages. And in a scary twist, the books are often ‘written’ (or blogged) on Mobile, as the authors grab spare moments.

As is pointed out neatly, we think of upload from Mobile as being images from cameras, perhaps some video, and a little podcast. But THIS is totally different. Radically different. Could it catch on?

**nauriceprivat** · #28 (**permalink**) 01-28-2008, 09:40 PM

According to Informa’s World Cellular Data Metrics, the number of subscriptions worldwide actively using data services via CDMA2000 1xEV-DO increased more than 80% year-on-year. The figure surpassed 56 million at the end of 3Q07, up from 30.8 million a year earlier, to represent 15.3% of the world’s overall CDMA base.
The increase was driven by the leading EV-DO operators — Verizon Wireless in United States and KDDI in Japan — which accounted for 60% or 33.8 million of the world total between them at the end of Q3 2007.
[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]

**nauriceprivat** · #29 (**permalink**) 01-29-2008, 11:01 AM

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]
I like positive reports, don’t you? It’s nice when you can read a report which says, via big numbers, that something is going to be very successful. I just happen to have one of those reports right here! ABI Research says that as Mobile TV services expand over the next 5 years, the total number of subs will rise to 462 million - now that’s a big number!
Some other notable takeaway titbits from the research are:

Asia-Pac to be the overall leading in adoption of mobile video services
China and India will contribute to the total due to population mass
South Korea and Japan will lead, with some countries in Western Europe, and the USA too

Of course these juicy morsels are part of a larger (paid-for) report - but it’s nice to have re-inforced that Mobile TV is gonna do so well

**nauriceprivat** · #30 (**permalink**) 01-29-2008, 11:02 AM

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]
Without hanging on the detail too long, a report has been created by digital research agency ‘Tomorrow’, and commissioned by the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA). It states the 10 essential factors for successful Mobile TV, of which I am going to comment on a few below - but before all that, here’s the full list:
[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]