category research v3.png

Cultural Institutions Like The National Film Board of Canada Staying Innovative in Digital

The National Film Board of Canada’s iPad app was once selected by iTunes Canada as the iPad app of the week. It is currently a respectable 28th in the Canadian entertainment category, according to Applyzer, an app ranking site.

Now, 40% of the National Film Board’s traffic is via mobile, where 2,000 movies are available for free streaming - proving that the iPad app was a sound investment indeed. Over 13,000 Canadian productions are available online from categories such as the Arts, Kids’ Movies, The Green Channel, Biography, Hot Topics, Animation, Outside the Box, World, History, Aboriginal Peoples, Classics, and High Definition.

read more

RIM's Global Market Share to Fall Below 5%, Analyst Warns

Can RIM's global market share fall below 5%? It's a scary thought, but RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue believes it's all too possible.

Mark forecasts RIM will sell just 9 million BlackBerrys this quarter, below the going estimation of 10.5. And although he acknowledged that "RIM has no debt," Mark warned clients that if things keep going south, "RIM may burn cash next year."

read more

Forecast: Global Mobile Content to Reach $150 Billion in 2012

Strategy Analytics predicts that, globally, combined consumer and advertiser expenditure on mobile media—which includes handset browsing, mobile applications, mobile games, mobile music, mobile video, mobile TV, ringtones, wallpapers and alerts, and associated data—will rise at a 8.4% compound annual growth rate, from below $150 billion at the end of 2012 to $224 billion by 2017.

read more

Communications Towers are Killing Millions of Birds in Canada and US Every Year

Communications towers throughout North America are responsible for the deaths of nearly seven million birds per year, according to wildlife authorities. But a study published this week by researchers at Environment Canada and US agencies and universities say these deaths can be greatly reduced.

Towers have continued to be built larger an larger, with some now reaching more than half a kilometre high. And they're held up by several kiolmetres of cable and wire, an avian death trap.

The report recommends that the telco industry change the lighting on taller towers. This alone could cut the death toll in half—saving the lives of at least three million birds annually.

read more

Tablet Ownership to Double in Two Years, Research Predicts

Well over 60 million tablets were sold in 2011. By 2016, this number is expected to soar to more than 230 million, according to new data from Futuresource Consulting.

While these numbers include commercial, industrial, and institutional sales, consumers will continue to drive the bulk of tablet sales. Consumers accounted for roughly 90% of all tablet sales last year, Futuresource says.

read more

The Four Most Popular App Categories in the Future

Tablets will continue to gain popularity, and within that, apps will too. By 2016, ABI Research predicts that tablet owners will download an average of more than 30 apps per year. 

In 2016, ABI forecasts nearly 14 billion app downloads in total. And it expects 11 billion, or 80%, of those apps to come from one of four categories: games, digital publishing, social networking, and e-commerce.

read more

Canada's Top 25 Up and Comer ICT Companies: You've Read About Them Here

Today, the Branham Group announced the results from the 2012 Edition of the Branham300 which ranks Canada’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry leaders by by revenues.

According to Branham, Canada’s ICT industry got back on track in 2011, as cumulative revenues for the Top 250 Canadian ICT companies combined to set a new Branham300 revenue record in 2011, increasing sales by 11.75% to $82.6 billion, surpassing the high of $76 billion achieved in 2008.

Interesting but not surprising fact: of this record revenue, 98% of the Top 250’s total revenues were generated by companies with headquarters in Ontario, Quebec, BC or Alberta.

While the complete Branham300 list is worth reviewing, Techvibes readers will be more interested in the following Top 25 Up and Comer ICT Companies, which are ranked on innovation—not revenue.

read more

Canadians Lead World in Web Usage: We Double the Global Average of Time Spent Online [Study]

If only there were gold medals for being addicted to the internet. Canadians would stand atop the pedestal with pride.

According to Comscore, Internet users who spent the most time online remain the Canadians. In the company's latest Canada Digital Future in Focus report, Comscore reaffirms that Canada is still the world leader in term of online engagement. The average Canadian Internet user spends 45 hours online per month, up 1.5 hours from the end of 2010.

read more

Canadians Loyalty to BlackBerry Vanishes as Android and Apple Gain Marketshare

Canadians have remained largely loyal to Research In Motion despite its recent follies. However, it appears that their allegiance to the Waterloo-based company is fading.

Overall smartphone ownership is up by 13% in the past six months in Canada, according to Ipsos Reid. Now, more than one-third of Canadians own smartphones—up from just one quarter in August 2011.

read more