MarCom Professional

eMarketer reports that U.S. small and medium businesses (SMBs) are adopting social media marketing in greater numbers, according to a market study by Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland.

Social media usage increased to 24 percent, from 12 percent the year before.

It's interesting to note that the most common usage of social media among small business was a company page on a social networking site, followed by posting status updates.

SMB expectations of social media are in line with their experiences, although they are not quite as successful as they had hoped. More...

According to the latest market study by Leichtman Research Group (LRG), 24 percent of U.S. households have a TV connected to the Internet. These connections vary from access via a video game system, a Blu-Ray disc player, an IP video set-top box or the TV set directly.

Internet connectivity is becoming a common built-in feature in consumer electronics devices, but consumers are just beginning to use this capability to watch IP video online. The upside growth opportunity is therefore huge.

Overall, just 1 percent of all adults currently watch video from the Internet via one of these devices daily, and 5 percent weekly. More...

Innovation isn't a typical event at mobile phone service providers. If the Apple iPhone hadn't introduced the concept of "visual" voice mail, then it's unlikely that this capability would ever have been introduced by any SP.

Likewise, the benefits gained from Skype and Google Voice will drive Voice over IP (VoIP) service evolution.

In-Stat estimates the total number of mobile VoIP users will reach 288 million by the end of 2013. Of these, well over half will be associated with online mobile VoIP providers, under one-third will utilize mobile VoIP with traditional 3G MVNOs or mobile operators, and 11 percent with WiMAX/LTE operators. More...

Demand for broadband access to the Internet and digital video pay-TV services continues to drive new infrastructure investment. Infonetics Research released the fourth quarter (4Q09) edition of its cable modem termination system (CMTS) and Edge quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) hardware and subscribers report.

"True to form, operators in North America, particularly in the U.S., spent what was left of their equipment budgets in the fourth quarter of 2009, giving a year-end boost to CMTS and edge QAM vendors," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and video at Infonetics Research. More...

Within four years, 50 percent of U.S. homes will own a 3D-Ready TV, and the adoption of 3D–Ready Blu-ray players won't be far behind -- with one out of every three U.S. homes owning one, according to the latest market study by Futuresource Consulting.

"Our research shows an imminent upsurge in the adoption of 3D-capable High Definition (HD) and Blu-ray hardware, now strengthened by a clearly defined 3D roadmap," says Jim Bottoms, Director at Futuresource.

Futuresource expects that a high percentage of Blu-ray players will ship with 3D capability next year, and within a few years it will probably be difficult to buy an HD video disc player without 3D. More...

Thousands of TV programs currently compete for "passive consumer" audiences. With such a huge range of traditional linear TV content, the electronic program guide (EPG) is being promoted as a viable solution -- according to the latest market study by Screen Digest and consulting firm Goldmedia.

It's estimated that 59 million households in Western Europe were equipped with EPGs at the end of 2008 -- a penetration of 36 percent of all TV households. This number will grow 19 percent yearly between 2008 and 2014 so that nearly three quarters of all TV households will have access to EPGs in 2014.

The analysts report has identified about 300 EPGs on the different platforms in Western Europe. More...

The demographic mix of Americans capable of using the Internet continues to evolve. With 71 percent of Americans using the Internet (from any location) at least once per month in 2010 -- U.S. Internet users now better resemble the general population.

Overall, eMarketer forecasts the number of monthly Internet users in the U.S. will rise to 250.7 million in 2014, up from 221 million in 2010.

More than one-half of new (novice) users will be ages 45 and up, as many of the remaining laggards join the mainstream. Among younger groups, the Internet is nearly ubiquitous, and most who are able to access it already do so -- leaving limited potential for new growth. More...

Over 11 million hotel rooms and 1 million airline seats are potential new IPTV entertainment applications, according to the latest market study by MRG, Inc.

Hotels and Airlines alone will account for a $1.9 billion global market in 2012, indicating that for most hospitality applications, analog video use is likely to quickly become extinct.

MRG says that both In-Room Entertainment (IRE) and In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) markets show a sharp shift in user expectations.

"While respondents indicated that IPTV may be too expensive for the low-end market, the study finds that there is a substantial and growing need for IPTV to serve the mid- and high-end of the hospitality market. More...

Attracting early-adopters is critical for vendors of new consumer electronics devices, and the profile of the informed progressive user is changing, according to the latest market study by In-Stat.

Early technology adoption is no longer constrained by income, education, ethnicity, or social status. As a result, a larger percentage of young adults than in the past consider themselves to be early-adopters.

"Whether it is TV Everywhere initiatives, over-the-top video services, Web-to-TV devices, or 3D digital televisions, the market success of each new innovation will be dependent on attracting early-adopters," says Keith Nissen, In-Stat analyst. More...

Infonetics Research released the routing and switching systems vendor market share results for the fourth quarter of 2009, based upon their latest global market study. These are the essential infrastructure building-block elements that enable the Global Networked Economy to flourish.

The top two vendors in the service provider router space, Cisco and Juniper, together went from attaining 69 percent of the worldwide router market in 2008 to 59 percent in 2009 -- while Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, and others gained share.

Tellabs pushed past Ericsson in 2009, putting them in the top five for the first time. More...