Digital Intelligence

Nokia has posted worse than expected Q2 results, including a drop in smartphone sales of 34% as the number of devices sold fell 39% year-on-year.

The firm, which was until recently the world's biggest mobile phone maker, posted a net loss of 1.41 billion euros - about four times the 368 million euro loss posted during the same period a year ago, and more than double the loss anticipated by analysts.

23/07/2012  |  Full story...

Samsung leads the way as the top smartphone seller in the world, followed by Apple, according to new research. The data, from research firm IDC, indicates that Samsung sold 42.2 million smartphones worldwide during the first quarter of 2012, earning it a 29.1% market share. Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones, helping it to secure a 24.2% market share.

04/05/2012  |  Full story...

Is Facebook destined to become the next AOL? This month saw the social network transform into a media hub, realising Zuckerberg's strategy of positioning Facebook as an "Internet within the Internet". The move has worked for games, providing huge ad revenues and rich demographic data yields, but will users be happy to watch Netflix films, stream Spotify playlists and read eBooks within Facebook's site? Or is it too similar to AOL's doomed "walled garden" strategy of the early noughties?

This month saw Google take the revamped Google+ public, buying Groupon rival Daily Deal and unveiling its potentially revolutionary Wallet service in the US. Meanwhile, Twitter's new analytics tool could help marketers shed light on the dark art of social media ROI, and the relationship between retweets and revenue on the micro-blogging site.

September also provided some prime examples of how not to get ahead in digital media. Yahoo fired fiery boss Bartz over the phone, leaving the former dotcom darling looking for a buyer. RIM saw its profits collapse as Blackberry lost its grip on the mobile market, and newly bought MySpace has been forced to postpone its grand launch. Award for worst CRM of the month goes to Netflix, which fumbled a re-branding and re-pricing strategy that outraged customers and forced a humble YouTube apology from the CEO, which you can view in all its wince-inducing glory below.

On the research side, we've got some telling stats on mobile broadband this month. 1 in 10 of eBay's customers now buy via mobiles, while the UN found that over 10% world population now has mobile broadband. Food for thought for anyone doubting the potential of mobile...

Read September 2011

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30/09/2011

Who says August's the quiet month for news? Here in the UK, riots revealed the worst and best of social media: large-scale looting was organised at least in part via secure Blackberry Messenger, while large-scale clean-ups were enabled through Twitter hashtags. Watching criminals exploit the privacy of BBM was as depressing as the relief felt from watching the publicly spirited clean-up. All a strong reminder that social activism through social media and messenger tools will be a permanent feature of society from now on whether in Libya or London.

Digital media battle lines continue to shift, as Google became a fully-fledged mobile maker after the Motorola acquisition, and a fully-fledged TV platform with the UK announcement of Google TV. Facebook got serious about location, dropping 'Places' for a universal location tagging system, adding mobile messaging in its bid to stifle Twitter and FourSquare, and ramping up its privacy along the way.

On a sad note, Apple lost its 'rock star nerd', as Steve Jobs stepped away from the helm. Jobs is a true digital revolutionary who pioneered game-changers like the iPod, iPhone and iPad - a real icon of our times who has materially affected all of us. While Apple's strategy looks confident to continue, we're still unconvinced by the shock moves at heavyweight tech firm Hewlett-Packard to ditch mobiles, tablets and PCs to become a standalone software maker.

Also in this month's edition, some eye-opening stats we think you'll enjoy: Amazon accounts for 1 in 5 of all web visits, the UK's Daily Mail became the second most read news site in the world. Which paper came first? You'll have to read on...

Read August 2011

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01/09/2011