Total app use grew by 115% but apps such as LINE, WhatsApp, SnapChat and Facebook Messenger saw a combined 203% growth in use over the past 12 months. (AFP photo)
AFP – Smartphone and tablet app use is up across the board but it is in social messaging where the growth is explosive and set to continue.
In all, according to Flurry Analytics’ data, total app use grew by 115% but apps such as LINE, WhatsApp, SnapChat and Facebook Messenger saw a combined 203% growth in use over the past 12 months.
At the same time, the use of traditional text messaging is beginning to slide for the first time in mobile phone history.
Deloitte’s annual technology predictions report, also published this week, shows that in the UK at least — one of the world’s most mature mobile markets — the number of text messages sent over the course of 2013 fell by some 7 billion to 145 billion messages. The number is expected to drop by a further 5 billion over the course of 2014 as social messaging apps continue to surge in popularity.
Research and analysis firm Ovum has already declared that 2014 will be the year of the social messaging app and predicts that a total of 71.5 trillion messages will be sent using them over the course of 2014 — up from 27.7 trillion messages in 2013.
And while social messaging is the clear leader according to the data, Flurry Analytics’ report, which tracked a total 1.126 trillion app sessions globally over the course of 2013 reveals that as well as replacing the basic text message with something more social, smartphone and tablet users are also getting more productive with their devices, offering more proof that mobile is eroding the traditional PC market for many consumers.
“Utilities and Productivity apps posted 150% growth in use year-over year, as smartphones and tablets became personal computers and productivity apps, such as Evernote and Quip, gained sophistication and adoption,” explained Flurry Chief Executive Simon Khalaf in a blogpost to accompany the findings.
As well as potentially bad news for Microsoft and its Window tablet ambitions, the report contains good news for games studios and even the publishing industry. Use of news and magazine apps is up 31% and gaming grew by 66%.
A view of a tablet and a smartphone displaying the Facebook app’s splash screen on May 10, 2012 in Washington, DC (AFP/File, Brendan Smialowski)
AFP – BlackBerry executives met with their counterparts at Facebook last week over a potential bid for the struggling Canadian phone-maker, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Although BlackBerry is weighing a sale, it was unclear whether Facebook plans to bid on the company, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The leading social network has made a priority of following its more than one billion members onto smartphones and tablets, and of finding ways to make money from visits by users on mobile devices.
Blackberry has $2.6 billion in cash, though that figure is eroding as the smartphone-maker loses traction in the market.
The company’s patents, with an estimated value of between $1 billion and $3 billion, are likely the most attractive BlackBerry asset for Facebook, the Journal speculated.
The patents namely cover security-network technology and smartphone component patents, which would be key to a company seeking to get a head start in the competitive smartphone market. BlackBerry also has about 70 million subscribers.
Last month, the company reached a preliminary deal for a $4.7-billion buyout by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, but also left the door open to other offers.
The Journal separately reported earlier this month that Chinese computer giant Lenovo Group Ltd. was mulling a possible counterbid to buy Blackberry, and BlackBerry has signed a nondisclosure agreement with distressed asset specialists Cerberus Capital Management LP.
A technology representative demonstrates the Microsoft Surface Pro tablet computer in Washington, DC, on April 16, 2013 (AFP/File, Saul Loeb)
AFP – Microsoft sent out invitations to a 23 September event at which it is expected to unveil new Surface tablets to challenge the iPads and Android devices dominating the market.
The event, which is to be held in New York, occurs as the US technology giant struggles to remain relevant given the rising shift from traditional computers to smart phones and tablets.
Email invitations to the “Surface NYC event” revealed little more than time and place details displayed over a graphic image of a Surface tablet and matching keyboard.
Last month, Microsoft knocked $100 off the price of high-end versions of its Surface tablet, which is competing against Apple’s iPad and other devices that use Google’s Android system.
The software giant’s online store is now offering US consumers the Surface Pro for $799 or $899, depending on memory capacity, down from the previous prices, $899 and $999, respectively.
The Surface RT is a basic version of the tablet, which received a 30 percent price cut earlier this year after failing to gain traction in the market.
The Surface RT price dropped from $499 to $399.
The promotion arrived at the heels of the sale of shabby tablets, which resulted in Microsoft paying a $900 million provisions charge against fourth quarter earnings; sales ceased at the end of June.
The charge exceeds the sales revenue of the tablet, since it was launched at the end of October 2012, estimated by the company to be around $853 million.
Surface was introduced to showcase Microsoft’s new Windows 8 operating system, which was launched at the same time in an effort to make up for ground lost to Apple and Google in the mobile domain.
Pressure on Microsoft to avoid becoming obsolete in the rapidly evolving technology world has triggered an overhaul of Windows; early retirement plans for chief executive Steve Ballmer, and the multibillion-dollar purchase of Nokia’s handset business.
The deal worth $7.2 billion (5.44 billion euros) gives Microsoft Nokia’s mobile phone operations along with an array of patents and licenses to help compete with rival platforms.
The deal also moves Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop, who was hired from Microsoft in 2010 to turn the company around, back to his former firm, and makes him a likely candidate to succeed Ballmer when he retires.
Microsoft’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer, announced has announced he will retire by August of next year.
Ballmer took over as CEO in 2000 from co-founder Bill Gates, a classmate and friend from their days at Harvard University in the 1970s.
When Ballmer took over, Microsoft was the undisputed tech sector leader, and the world’s largest company in market value. But in recent years, it has struggled, as consumers move from desktop and laptop PCs to mobile devices.
“The tablet would be distributed starting 25 June with affordable prices,” the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Atef Helmy said. (Public Domain Photo)
By Farah Atia
“Egypt’s IT market has a bright medium-term outlook but is facing constraints in 2013 as fiscal consolidation, currency depreciation and credit shortages limit spending,” a report by Business Monitor International (BMI) said.
“Even in this difficult climate, we expect overall spending to grow and increase as a share of GDP,” it stated, adding that market fundamentals support growth momentum, with low penetration of products and services in the retail and enterprise market. This means there is significant untapped potential.
Microsoft recently announced that more than 75% of midsize to large businesses are implementing big data-related solutions in 2013, with IT departments (52%) currently driving most of the demand for big data. Customer care (41%), sales (26%), finance (23%) and marketing (23%) departments are also adding to current demand.
Growth in the volume of data is making more customers adopt big data solutions from Microsoft. “Big data can be large tables of structured data, huge files of complex unstructured data, or small amounts of machine-generated data that pile up faster than you can make sense of it,” said Eron Kelly, general manager of SQL Server at Microsoft.
BMI also highlighted that the government’s ICT strategy is supportive of the market. Initiatives such as tablets for education and promotion of Egypt as an outsourcing destination are boosting development. The Inar Tablets produced by Benha Electronics is a pilot project that entails the production of 10,000 tablets locally manufactured to be distributed to universities students, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) announced this month. “The tablet would be distributed starting 25 June with affordable prices,” the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Atef Helmy said.
A press statement released by the MCIT yesterday said government plans to implement their national strategy to transition to a digital society and build a modern information society. According to the statement it would bolster economic growth through developing the use of e-transactions and streamline planning and decision-making at all levels.
“In the formulation of this strategy, the primary considerations were the political and economic changes taking place in Egypt; the development of the communications sector both regionally and internationally; and Egypt’s national development priorities,” the statement added.
“We forecast IT market value will increase to EGP11.303bn in 2013, and growth will then move to a higher trajectory once economic conditions ease from 2014 onwards,” BMI said.
BMI also noted that computer hardware sales rose by 9.12% in local currency terms from EGP6.175bn in 2012 to EGP6.737bn in 2013. Retail sales have been negatively impacted by currency depreciation and credit shortages, but “we expect growth for the market in local currency terms due to positive trends such as government procurement initiatives and widening availability of low-cost tablets,” it explained.
MCIT announced yesterday it had signed a joint cooperation protocol with the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) Judge, Maher El-Beheiry to automate and develop the court’s work systems, as well as integrate ICT applications in its internal and external work system.
The three-year protocol, subject to renewal, aims to advance judicial and administrative work at the SCC via developing the use of e-transactions and modern technology. MCIT said the new system saves time and effort through the use of ICT to streamline and secure procedures, manages government activities effectively and extracts supporting indicators for decision-making by senior management.
“The scope of the protocol includes a number of projects: electronic management of cases, developing a portal of SCC Services, training and human development, SCC library automation and mechanisation of institutional resources,” MCIT’s press statement said.
MCIT also announced it had signed a joint cooperation protocol last week with the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) for development and technological modernisation which facilitates services provided by the CPA for citizens using IT tools.
