The number of Internet users in China climbed to 94 mln by the end of 2004, according to China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). Broadband users jumped by nearly 150% to almost 43 mln. China’s Internet users account for 7.2% of the population, still below the world average of 12.7%. Hong Kong has 3.3 mln Internet users, while Macao has 201,000 online - 51% and 46% of their populations, respectively.
Chinese chip-equipment purchasing is set to drop 33.6% in 2005 compared with the relative boom in 2004, according to The Information Network. While production of ICs in mainland China grew 34.8% in 2004, semiconductor manufacturing equipment purchases grew a phenomenal 146%. But 2005 will be another story. With the slowdown in the semiconductor industry and accompanied cuts in SMIC’s capital spending, equipment sales will drop 33.6% to $1.88 bln.
Ukrainian companies lost about 95 mln euros to viruses and malware, according to UNA Corp. Most of the losses hit medium-size businesses, where additional PC purchases are not accompanied by proper security considerations. The number of virus incidents increased tenfold as compared to 2003.
Informa Media and Telecoms predicts the value of internet film revenues (sales of both hardcopy and digital) to increase fourfold from 2002 to 2010, reaching $3.6 bln by 2010. The US will mop up most of the sales, racking up around 47% of all worldwide sales in 2010. In 2004, hard formats had a 99.3% of the market. By 2010, that’s expected to drop to 72.9%. Digital sales of films will continue to rise in parallel, growing from $11.7 mln last year to $976.5 mln in 2010.
Jakob Nielsen debunks the myth of teenagers being cyber-geniuses. Only 55% of surveyed teens were successful in completing a task on the given Web site, while adults’ average varied around 66%. Teens’ poor performance is caused by three factors: insufficient reading skills, less sophisticated research strategies, and a dramatically lower patience level.
Support for open source technologies from mainstream suppliers such as IBM and Sun has boosted the number of financial institutions using Linux from 27% last year to 58% in 2005, according to a report from financial technology researchers Finextra.
The number of home VOIP lines in the United States was roughly 1 mln at the end of 2004, a drop in an ocean compared with about 160 mln landline and 170 mln cellular phone subscribers. But some estimates say VOIP subscribers could triple this year, thanks largely to cable company campaigns to sign up phone customers, and hit 20 mln by 2008. Other countries that have more widespread broadband use have seen faster VOIP growth, with Japan’s Yahoo Broadband the largest provider so far at 4.4 mln VOIP lines.
Dell’Oro Group forecasts that WLAN equipment revenues are poised to grow 13% in 2005 to $2.6 bln, and that the market will continue to grow through 2009 to $4.3 bln, a compounded annual growth rate of 13%. The SOHO market for standalone WLAN equipment will decline; however, this decline will be more than compensated for by sales of WLAN embedded in broadband Customer Premises Equipment.
In the survey of almost 2,000 ad executives, brand managers and academics by online magazine Brandchannel, Apple ousted search engine Google from last year’s top spot, but the surprise to many will be Al Jazeera’s entry into the top five.
Top recognized brands worldwide, 2005:
Top recognized brands in North America, 2005:
By 2008, there could be 100 mln wireless sensors in use, up from about 200,000 today, Harbor Research says. The worldwide market for wireless sensors, it says, will grow from $100 mln this year to more than $1 bln by 2009.
Western European residential broadband uptake has exploded in the past two years, growing more than 80% in 2003 and around 30% in the first half of 2004, according to Forrester. By 2010, European broadband penetration will reach more than 40% of all households, which is equal to well over 70 mln households equipped with broadband. By 2010 the biggest adoption rates will be in Holland and across Scandinavia, with around half of homes having broadband. The countries with the largest economies, including the UK, will see a take-up of between 35% and 45%.
Demand for 3G mobile phone services in Asia outside of Japan will grow by half this year to more than 17 mln users, driven by the established South Korean market, according to IDC. The wider availability of 3G phones that allow high-speed Internet access and video-conferencing will support the increase in subscribers as operators launch new services and discounts. IDC estimates Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) mobile revenues will rise by an average 16% in 2005 to $81.2 bln, driven by India, South Korea and the Philippines. Mobile revenues are expected to rise 64% in India, 27% in South Korea and 25% in the Philippines.
Magnetic computer memory (MRAM) combines the speed of SRAM with the non-volatility of Flash. It also offers a low-power memory solution, which eventually may match DRAM’s capacity and density. All this makes MRAM look like the universal memory solution of the future. According to NanoMarkets, the MRAM market will grow to $2.1 bln by 2008, and $16.1 bln by 2012.
Global DRM revenues will grow by at least 28% in 2005, ABI Research forecasts, and the highest growth opportunities are among telcos, broadband, mobile and in portable markets. It is here, where DRM vendors partner with content owners and distributors, that the last decade’s profound changes in global networking show their fullest impact.
The USA remains the world’s leading broadband country achieving 31.7 mln lines in Q3 2004. China is in second place, adding 3 mln to reach 22.2 mln lines, and is pulling further ahead of Japan which had 17.2 mln lines. France overtook Canada to take sixth place with 5.7 mln lines. The UK added 762,000 lines in Q3 2004 - the most by any European country, and reached 5.1 mln lines.
In terms of percentage growth Thailand led the way with 95% growth to reach 110,000 lines - which were mainly DSL. Elsewhere, the Eastern European countries have displayed particularly strong growth, due to a combination of strong demand and greater transparency in their respective telecommunications markets. Hungary for example achieved 69% growth with cable modem and other broadband subscribers now featured amongst mainstream DSL subscriptions. Poland also experienced solid growth of 59% and is approaching 500,000 broadband lines. In other parts of Europe, Turkey continues to grow strongly registering 43% to reach 272,500 broadband lines.
Latin American countries also feature in the top ten for growth, with Mexico achieving 33% and approaches 500,000 broadband lines. Argentina had growth of 26% as it passed 400,000 lines.
IDC released preliminary numbers on mobile phone shipments and market shares for 2004. A total of 664.5 mln cell phones was sold in 2004, with Nokia keeping 31.2% market share.
| Mobile phone shipments and market shares for 2004 | |||
| Rank | Vendor | 2004 Shipments | 2004 Market Share |
| 1 | Nokia | 207,600,000 | 31.2% |
| 2 | Motorola | 104,500,000 | 15.7% |
| 3 | Samsung | 86,500,000 | 13.0% |
| 4 | Siemens | 49,400,000 | 7.4% |
| 5 | LG Electronics | 44,400,000 | 6.7% |
| Other | 172,000,000 | 25.9% | |
| Total | 664,500,000 | 100.0% | |
| Source: IDC | |||
Given current growth rates worldwide broadband subscribers will exceed 150 mln before the end of 2004. Point Topic indicates broadband subscriptions rose to 136.4 mln by 30 September 2004. This marks a 53% increase from 89 mln lines in Q3 2003 - an absolute increase of 47 mln lines. The Asia Pacific share of subscriptions stood at 43% with 58.7 mln lines. EMEA’s market share increased by 4% since Q3 2003 to 27% and 37.1 mln lines, as the Americas share declined by 3% to 30% reaching 40.6 mln lines.
Following two consecutive quarters of steady growth, the worldwide mobile phone market jumped during Q4 2004 to its highest level ever. According to IDC, worldwide mobile phone shipments totaled 194.3 mln units in Q4 2004, growing 18.1% sequentially and 24% year over year. For the full year 2004, worldwide mobile phone shipments increased 29.3% over 2003.
Q4 2004 marked Nokia’s second consecutive quarter with market share above 30%. The Finnish company strengthened its product line-up with devices aimed at entry level, business, and fashion conscious users. As a result of its efforts, Nokia firmly maintained its spot as top vendor in the industry. The companies in the next four spots saw increased activity as well. Motorola reached record level shipments, claimed 16.4% of the market, and distanced itself from Samsung by more than ten mln units. Third place Samsung, after spending most of 2004 steadily closing the gap against Motorola, saw its shipments decrease to levels it had not seen since the start of 2004, but managed to retain 10.9% of the market. Finally, LG Electronics climbed another notch to supplant Siemens for the number 4 spot and 7.2% market share, but only 0.3% separated the two companies.