Viewing video has overtaken playing games as the most popular entertainment activity on tablets, said a Futuresource Consulting report that polled consumers in France, Germany, the U.K. and U.S. Some 57 percent of tablet owners in the four countries watch video on their mobile device -- vs. 53 percent who play games -- and 24 percent pay-to-view video content, Futuresource said. The U.S. leads all markets in watching paid-for video on tablets with 34 percent of users paying for video content, it said. Large tablets appear to encourage more viewing, as 62 percent of large tablet users said they watched video on their devices compared with 53 percent of small tablet owners, it said. The TV continues to gain use as a connected device, said the industry research firm Tuesday. Nearly 80 percent of connected TV owners stream video, and 63 percent access a premium video service at least once a week, it said. Households with children under 12 are 20 percent more likely to subscribe to TV services, said the data. Netflix subscribers are four times more likely to own a digital media adapter than Netflix non-subscribers. Twelve percent of households with kids had an UltraViolet account vs. 4 percent of households with no kids, and households with kids outnumbered those without as packaged media buyers and renters by 38 percent to 18 percent. Deleting premium packages from TV subscriptions, known as cord shaving, reached 17 percent of U.S. consumers in October 2014. That was up from 13 percent in September 2013, led by 19- to 25-year-olds and households with children, said the survey. U.S. pay TV subscribers stood at 65 million last fall versus 10 million streaming VOD customers, while 35 million U.S. viewers fit into both groups, it said. Music streaming is the most popular form of music consumption in the four countries, with 29 percent of respondents reporting they listen to free music services and 42 percent to Internet radio stations. The U.S. skewed higher at 50 percent of respondents who reported listening to any type of music service. Only 5 percent of the total base said it pays for a subscription music service. The survey was conducted during September and October with a nationally representative sample of just more than 1,000 consumers in each country.
Legal research website Casetext raised $7 million in a Series A funding round, said a company news release Tuesday. The financing round was led by Union Square Ventures and included Formation 8 and former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer, it said. Casetext lets lawyers comment on court cases and legal statutes for free, it said.
Hype about the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus last fall took a toll on sales of iPads in Q4 for Apple, which shipped 4.6 million fewer tablets versus the previous-year quarter, an industry research firm said. Apple had a 17.8 percent shipment decline over Q4 2013, to 21.4 million units in 2014 Q4, a Monday report​ from IDC said. Apple CEO Tim Cook said last week when releasing quarterly results that the iPhone was the star of that quarter (see 1501280031). The company expanded its iPad lineup by keeping around older models and offering a lower entry price point of $249, but the strategy “wasn't enough to spur iPad sales given the excitement around the launch of the new iPhones,” Jitesh Ubrani, IDC senior research analyst, said. Apple’s efforts to maintain iPad momentum “have fallen flat” because the latest generation of iPads offer “very minimalistic upgrades over their previous versions,” IDC said. "Cannibalization at the bottom from the iPhone and at the top from the Mac appears to be a serious issue for the iPad.” Worldwide tablet shipments, meanwhile, had a year-over-year decline for the first time since the market's inception in 2010, IDC said. It said overall shipments for tablets and 2-in-1 devices slipped 3.2 percent, to 76.1 million in Q4, compared with 78.6 million for the 2013 period. "The tablet market is still very top heavy" because Apple and Samsung are largely carrying the market each year, Ubrani said. Fifth-place Amazon had the steepest annual volume decline of the top five tablet vendors, IDC said. Despite a product refresh at the end of September with the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 and 7-inch Fire HD, holiday sales tumbled nearly 70 percent compared with 2013, IDC said. Of the top five, it said that only Lenovo, in a distant third place, had growth in Q4, boosting tablet shipments by 9 percent to 3.7 million units for 4.8 percent global market share. IDC forecasts growth for the tablet category in 2015, Jean Philippe Bouchard, research director-tablets, said. Potential growth contributors include Microsoft's new operating system, a shift toward larger screen sizes and “productivity focused solutions,” along with technology innovations such as gesture control, he said.
Nexstar Broadcasting bought digital video advertising company Yashi for $33 million, the acquirer said in a news release Monday. Yashi owns a proprietary platform for digital advertising that integrates “geographic, demographic, and other data-driven targeting tools with real-time-bidding,” Nexstar said. The deal “substantially broadens and diversifies Nexstar’s digital media portfolio” with businesses that are complementary to a focus on “multi-platform marketing solutions for local and national advertisers,” it said. Yashi will operate as a division of Nexstar.
Global shipments of Android smartphones fell quarter-on-quarter for the first time in Q4, ABI Research said Friday in a report. Worldwide shipments of smartphones of all types jumped 7 percent to 378 million in Q4 from 354 million in Q3, ABI said. Android smartphones didn’t share in that success, as they fell 5 percent to 206 million, ABI said. Apple had a banner quarter, as iPhones climbed 90 percent to 74.5 million smartphones, it said. Shipments of Windows Phones fared well, rising 19 percent to 11 million, the industry researcher said. Apple’s success with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus “has taken the high end of the market away from certified Android’s premium tier vendors,” ABI said. It was a “seismic quarter” in the smartphone industry, and “many premium tier Android vendors may once again review their operating system and therefore content and service strategies” in light of Apple’s success, it said. These are “worrying times for Google’s mobile services and Android, but it presents opportunity for other service providers and even operating systems,” ABI said. Google representatives didn’t comment.
Google’s revenue in 2014 was $66 billion, up 19 percent year-over-year, the company said in a news release Thursday. Its Q4 revenue was $18.1 billion, a 15 percent increase from the same period in 2013, it said. The company’s net profit in Q4 was $4.76 billion, up $1.38 billion from Q4 2013. “Aggregate” paid clicks on Google sites and its network members were up 14 percent in Q4, and up 11 percent from Q3. The average cost per click on such sites decreased about 3 percent from Q3 and Q4 2013. Google had $64.4 billion in cash and market securities Dec. 31.
India-based artificial intelligence company Mad Street Den raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round, a company news release said Friday. MSD is a cloud-based platform that uses “vision modules” for e-commerce and other tech industries, including gaming, it said. GrowX Ventures and Reservoir Investment Managers’ Exfinity Fund -- both based in India -- provided the financing, MSD said.
The table is set for Thread Group-branded connected home products to reach store shelves during the second half of 2015, Sujata Neidig, its vice president-marketing and Freescale Semiconductor business development manager, told us Friday. The alliance, which said last week it had surpassed 80 members, is on a fast track to bring the connected home mainstream, Neidig said. Thread’s initial goal is to get the spec released, due for summer, and then to increase awareness of the protocol among developers, manufacturers and software developers, Neidig said. The group then will raise awareness among consumers, she said. Success will be launching products that are Thread-enabled and expanding the market from there, she said. The connected home has been talked about for many years, Neidig said, “and we want to enable it as soon as possible.” The alliance positions Thread as a simple, low-cost way to connect devices in the home. “We built Thread based on existing technologies,” Neidig said, adding that Thread runs on any existing 802.15.4 radio, of which “millions” are in homes today. “All you’re doing is adding the Thread software stack,” she said. “Theoretically, any device on the market today that has an 802.15.4 radio in it can be updated on the air via software to run Thread.” Thread’s position in the Internet of Things is that it’s targeted only to the connected home, it’s focused on connecting devices and enabling them to communicate, and it’s an IP-based standard in a mesh network configuration that’s low power and scalable, Neidig said. Founding companies include Nest, Samsung and Silicon Labs. Thread Group also announced last week its enabler program that’s designed to spur development among startups that don’t have the $2,500 funding necessary to join the group (see 1501280033).
Dish Network customers will be able to use the Reverse AutoHop feature on the Hopper DVR Monday to watch only the commercials from Sunday’s Super Bowl, Dish said in a news release Thursday. This requires customers to have the PrimeTime Anytime feature for NBC, it said.
Smartphone shipments vaulted to a record level in Q4 on seasonality, strong end-user demand and a “deep selection of models,” said preliminary data released Thursday from IDC. Vendors shipped 375 million units during Q4, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, up 28 percent over the year-ago quarter and 12 percent growth over Q3. For the year, 1.3 billion smartphones shipped, IDC said, up 28 percent from 2013. Juniper Research said it was the first year global smartphone shipments exceeded 1 billion units, at 1.2 billion. It said the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sold more iPhones in China than in the U.S. for the first time. Despite closing in on Samsung in Q4, Apple had a worldwide market share of 15 percent for 2014. The iPhone was the star of Apple's most recent quarter, CEO Tim Cook said earlier this week (see 1501280031). Both market research firms cited a narrowing gap between No. 1 smartphone maker Samsung and rival Apple. IDC said Apple cut the volume gap to 600,000 units in Q4 and said continued success -- along with challenges to Samsung from low-cost, low-margin Android smartphone makers -- could enable Apple to overtake Samsung as shipment leader sometime during 2015. For Samsung to hold on to the top spot, “it will either have to accept lower margins from here forward or revamp its high-end strategy to compete with Apple,” IDC said. While year-over-year smartphone unit growth slowed from 40 percent in 2013 to 27 percent last year, “the market clearly has legs,” IDC said. Growth is forecast to decline to the mid-teens this year, “but opportunity exists” as a large segment of the world population hasn't yet acquired a mobile phone or stepped up to a smartphone, IDC said. "Mature markets have become increasingly dependent on replacement purchases rather than first-time buyers, which has contributed to slower growth,” Ramon Llamas, research manager, said. In emerging markets, first-time buyers have provided momentum to the smartphone market, but “the focus has shifted toward low-cost devices, creating a different dynamic for both global and local vendors,” Llamas said. Facing increased pressure from Apple at the high end and from Chinese manufacturers Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE and others at the mid- to low end, Samsung is facing a “multi-front battle” and has streamlined operations and its product portfolio to position itself more competitively, IDC said. Apple sales were up 44 percent in the U.S. to 74.5 million and up 97 percent in Brazil, Russia, India and China, IDC said. It “remains to be seen how long Apple can sustain this runaway growth,” IDC said. Juniper said the reception of the iPhone 6 Plus indicates “a large potential for Apple phablets” and will likely accelerate the trend toward bigger smartphone screens.