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
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
Luxury brands often appeal to consumers because of their mystery and prestige. But it appears that free mobile apps accessible to everyone is the next key to success in the luxury market.
read more
Toronto's Claystone Labs has launched its Android homescreen service. The Canadian startup's vision is to become "Everything on your Android phone in one swipe."
It's a new way to using your Android device; Claystone's navigation is composed of Panels that feature content and apps to interact with. Panels are layered atop one another each time a user selects an item, which creats a swipable, browsable Stack. Confused? Check out the video below to see Claystone work its magic.
read more
In a recent report called Long Term Evolutionary Challenge: Limiting Wireless Carrier Gluttony, Seabord Group argues that Canada must stimulate competition in the mobile services sector. Consumers complain about high prices and the lack of choice in the Canadian mobile market, composed mainly of an oligopoly between Bell, Rogers, and Telus.
Seabord reports that there is an antipathetic movement toward big mobile telcos since consumers have few phone device choices. Thus, it translates into a lower penetration of mobiles services in Canada versus OECD countries and also many emergent countries.
read more
Vancouver-based startup HootSuite has extended the functionality of its social media management system with a fourth wave of partner integrations. Joining the company's growing app directory now are MailChimp, Chime.in, Identi.ca, Vision Critical Surveys, and RSS Reader. HootSuite says that these apps will be available immediately to Free, Pro, and Enterprise clients.
“Businesses today are social. Success depends on connecting with customers instantly across multiple social media channels and networks. The growth of our App Directory gives clients an impressive arsenal of tools to do this, all in a single place,” says HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes. “Our goal, as we close in on six million users by end of year, is to continue aggressively integrating leading apps, turning our dashboard into the mother of all SaaS resources for the social business.”
read moreIn 1999, Waterloo-based Research In Motion gave the world a gift. It was called the BlackBerry 850, and it redefined the mobile phone. The 850 triggered an 80% surge in RIM's revenue that year and sparked an incredible run of global growth. The company quickly became a Canadian legend and a worldwide megalithic force in the mobile space. But times have changed.
MBA Online recently looked at RIM and published an infographic titled The Death of RIM: A Case Study. While it lacks many of the finer details that contributed to RIM's downward spiral, the graphic captures the company's past 13 years and encapsulates them into a digestible nutshell.
read more
Facebook now has more than 900 million monthly active users and more than 500 million mobile users, according to an update to its IPO filing. More than half of those active users come back every single day.
The social networking giant also revealed it generated just over $1 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2012, up 45% from one year ago but down 6.5% from the previous quarter. Advertising made up 82% of Facebook's revenue in the first quarter.
read more
Waterloo's Research In Motion has hired Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP. The law firm has been hired to work out a restructuring plan.
The plan could see RIM perform any of the following major moves: sell assets, seek joint ventures, or license patents, according to inside sources cited by Reuters. The most likely option at this point is for RIM to open up its BlackBerry 10 operating system, sources suggest.
read more
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