Apple Logs 3 Million iPads Sold in Three Days

                                                                                  (Image Credit: Joanna Stern/ABC News)

Take that, analysts! That’s what Apple is saying this morning after announcing that it has sold 3 million iPad Minis and fourth-generation iPads since going on sale Friday.

While Apple didn’t break down sales between the two, analysts at Piper Jaffray predicted Apple would only sell 1.5 million Minis in the first few days.

Apple sold 3 million of the new iPads in the first weekend of its launch in March. But with that version it had WiFi and 3G-4G units on shelves at launch. With the Mini, only the WiFi version launched this week; the 3G-4G versions will launch later this month.

In addition to the Mini, Apple also released a slightly updated version of its larger iPad. The fourth-generation iPad has a new processor and dock connector. With the sales of both products combined, Apple is calling this a launch weekend record for the iPad.

The iPad Mini joined a few other popular smaller tablets on the market, including the $199 Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. Asus, the maker of the Nexus 7, has reported its sells close to 1 million units a month.

The new iPad, which starts at $329, has a smaller 7.9-inch screen than the regular 9.7-inch iPad. While the Mini has a lower-resolution screen, it still has all the same capabilities as the other iPad since it runs iOS 6, the latest version of Apple’s operating system for the iPhone and iPad.

Despite the recent superstorm, the Mini was sold out at various stores in New York City this weekend. Apple has begun to allow customers to reserve the tablet online and pick it up in-store the next day.

“We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.”

As a result of last week’s executive shakeup at the company and predictions of lackluster iPad Mini sales, Apple’s stock dropped to less than $580. Apple was trading at $582.72 a share this morning.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Samsung tops the global smartphone market, as HTC, Nokia and RIM fall further behind

Research published by market analysts IDC has put Samsung way out in front of its rivals in the global smartphone market share charts, where Nokia has disappeared from the top five for the first time, and HTC has dropped several spots too.

Market analyst company IDC has released the latest version of its Mobile Phone Tracker information chart, showing where it places the world’s major phone manufacturers regarding smartphone market share and sales. Samsung is the star of the show, a fact reflected in its own quarterly results, while Nokia, HTC and Research in Motion all show signs of suffering at both its, and Apple’s hands.

Samsung has retained its position at the top of the charts, with a 31.3-percent market share, up from 22.7-percent last year. It’s estimated to have shipped 56 million smartphones between July and September, a huge improvement over the already impressive 28 million from the same period last year.

The Korean company has also announced its financial report for the same period, posting $7.4 billion in profits, beating its previous record for the fourth consecutive time. A Reuters piece on the subject puts its smartphone shipments at 58 million, slightly higher than IDC’s figure, and says that between 18 and 20 million of that amount were Galaxy S3 handsets.

HTC drops behind RIM and ZTE

Apple comes second in IDC’s ranking, with 15-percent of the smartphone market, up from 13.8-percent this time last year, and we all know how it has been performing recently. Research in Motion is gamely holding on to third position with a market share of 4.3-percent, down from 9.6-percent last year, but ZTE is a mere 0.1-percent behind — making a position change likely in IDC’s next report.

Finally, the top five is rounded out by HTC. This time last year, it had a 10.3-percent market share, and was ahead of both RIM and ZTE, but now, with a dismal 4-percent, it trails both of them. It’s shown to have sold 7.3 million smartphones this quarter, highlighting the gulf that has opened up between it, Apple and particularly Samsung.

To try to drum up some business in Europe, HTC has today launched Best Deals, a variation on the popular daily deal system, where HTC owners can enter their own deal preferences and, based on location, the app will return relevant offers. There are 12 providers signed up to Best Deals, including iVoucher, Daily Deal, Qype and LivingSocial, but perhaps crucially, not Groupon. The Best Deals app looks to be part of HTC Sense, is compatible with the One X, One S, One X+, the 8X and 8S, and will be available in the UK, Italy, Germany, France and Spain in November.

Nokia leaves the top five for the first time

Finally, we come to Nokia, a company absent from IDC’s top five smartphone companies for the first time since it first began keeping records in 2004. It does still appear in the overall list of general phone manufacturers though, and in second position. It has shipped a massive 82 million phones during the third quarter, down from the 106 million it shipped during the same period last year, and it retains an 18.7-percent market share.

Samsung again tops this list, with a 23-percent market share and a grand total of 105.4 million phones leaving its warehouse.

There’s no sign of the global smartphone market slowing down either, as the 179 million smartphones sold this summer is 45.3-percent more than this time last year.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Gartner report: By 2014, 10-15 percent of social media reviews will be fake

Gartner analysts have found that by 2014, between 10 and 15 percent of reviews will be fake.

Product reviews, whether coming from Amazon, Rotten Tomatoes, or Yelp, can make or break your Internet marketing efforts. There’s a lot at stake and that means plenty of outlets resort to illicit practices (read: faux users and spambots) to improve their reputation. In a Gartner study, analysts found that by 2014, between 10 and 15 percent of social media reviews will be faked.

Over half of the Internet population use social networks, and a handful of those platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+), house a dense concentration of users that are sharing and promoting content on their own accord. It is word of mouth 2.0 and it’s a powerful and lucrative marketing opportunity. So powerful, in fact, that analysts predict that at least two Fortune 500 companies will face litigation from the Federal Trade Commission in the next two years for illicit social media practices.

“Organizations are scrambling for new ways to build bigger follower bases, generate more hits on videos, garner more positive reviews than their competitors and solicit ‘likes’ on their Facebook pages,” Jenny Sussin, senior research analyst at Gartner said in a statement.

Just scanning Craigslist jobs shows you the potential for careers in faux brand promotion. Desperate companies will often offer a small compensation in exchange for a positive review of their product, even if the reviewer never set foot within the restaurant or never used the product in question. It seems like a harmless scheme that quickly pays a few bucks, but the FTC ruled that reviews for products without appropriate disclosures, including being paid off or receiving a free gift, is a deceptive advertising strategy and can be prosecuted with a fine.

Several years ago, the FTC’s Guide Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising impacted the blogging community, which responded angrily. Bloggers under this ruling have been required to disclose to readers of any payments, affiliations, or free products recieved in exchange for a review.

While the noise around blogging has died down, criminal online and social media practices have consequently evolved. Businesses can easily purchase “Likes” on Facebook or “Followers” on Twitter for a low as five dollars on sites like Fiverr. Anyone resorting to this strategy would know that they would be acquiring fake users or users that have no interest in your business, but with the pressure on marketers to perform, paying to bolster a company’s reputation with a few more thousand followers can be incredibly tempting.

“Marketing, customer service, and IT social media managers looking to use reviews, fans and ‘Likes’ to improve their brand’s reputation on social media must beware of the potential negative consequences on corporate reputation and profitability,” said Ed Thompson, Gartner Vice President and analyst.

While companies tangle with this ethical and legal dilemma surrounding social media practices, Facebook has made strides with shutting down accounts and removing “Likes” that fail to abide by its terms of service. As we reported, as many as 83 million accounts are “fake” accounts, and Facebook’s latest effort to clean house affected less than one percent of any given Facebook Page.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Digital music spending to outstrip analog spending globally by 2015

Music industry purists, beware: A new report from industry analysts predicts that digital spending on music will pass physical sales internationally by 2015, and as early as this year in certain markets - including the United States.

Here’s a potentially surprising piece of trivia masquerading as news (or vice versa, dependent on whether or not you work in the music industry): According to analysts, we’re just three years away from seeing global digital music sales surpass physical music sales, with digital sales set to rise more than 15 percent worldwide by the end of the year. The real question is, which part of that is the most surprising?

The prediction comes courtesy of international market research company Strategy Analytics, specifically the company’s latest “Global Recorded Music Forecast” report. The report explains that digital music spending will represent 39 percent of global music spending this year, with streaming digital content rising by an impressive 40 percent throughout the year to become the dominant growth engine for the digital format (Download growth is at 8.5 percent worldwide); however, downloads still represent the bulk of digital spending generating $3.9 billion to streaming’s $1.1 billion. Overall digital spending is expected to be up 17.8 percent for 2012 – reaching $8.6 billion – compared with a 12.1 percent decline in physical sales.

Based on the movement of the markets, Strategy Analytics is predicting that 2015 will be the first year where digital global spending outstrips physical spending in terms of music, although it points out that some countries – amongst them, Sweden, South Korea and the US – are already ahead of the curve in that respect. It’s that last point that reinforces my point from above: Doesn’t it feel as if digital music spending should already be above physical spending by this point? Hasn’t analog music become an entirely niche market already?

That attitude likely comes from my location-based thinking. According to the Global Recorded Music Forecast, digital music spending in the US is almost double what it is, percentage-wise, in the rest of the world – 41 percent to 22 percent – which, combined with the decline in physical spending, underscores the feeling of digital being where it’s at, these days (Interestingly, despite the increased spending percentage for digital, the decline in physical music spending in the US is actually slower than globally; just 9 percent). In fact, the US is well ahead of the curve when it comes to the digital tipping point; we’re expected to see digital music spending outweigh analog as early as this year, if predictions hold.

According to Strategy Analytics director of digital media Ed Barton, this changeover may mean a turnaround in fortunes for the American music industry. “Having stabilized long term revenue declines resulting from the downsizing of packaged music spending,” he explained, “the industry will be hoping that digital can rebuild the US music market to something approaching its former stature.”

A large part of that rebuilding effort will rely on the continued success of the streaming music format; as with the global view, streaming is growing faster in the US than downloading, with growth rates hitting 27.8 percent against downloading’s 6.7 percent. As Barton points out, “this [download] market is maturing and spending is flattening in all key territories. Streaming music services such as Spotify and Pandora will be the key growth drivers over the next five years as usage and spending grow rapidly.” Good news for Spotify, Pandora and the like, but maybe not such good news for the record labels that were hoping to see a renewed emphasis on actual sales any time soon..

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com