More Effort Needed to Develop Application Stores in China
This report provides an overview of the application store market, its value chain, business models, and key drivers and barriers. Through analysis of the value chain, it also describes the principal types of application store and discusses important market issues.
The App Store model has generated a new industry and created a new business model that allows third-party developers to share revenue with platform providers. The success of an application store depends on many factors, including platform development and management capability, payment system and payment method, licensing, and application localization. For non-local providers operating in China, such as Apple, Nokia, and Google, licensing and application localization are the most crucial issues. As both a local provider and a mobile carrier, China Mobile has formidable competitive advantages over other providers.
Overall, the application store market is in a state of rapid development and faces many challenges, especially in China. The booming smartphone market and huge promotional efforts by mobile carriers are driving the market, but licensing, application localization, and smartphone and application fees remain barriers to be overcome.
Lower Barriers to Entry Will Drive China's Smartphone Market
Smartphone shipments in China grew 30% to 23.6 million in 2008 despite China's uncertain economy and overall stagnation in handset shipment growth. Mobile Internet applications, GPS, and multimedia functionality have been the most important drivers of this growth.
In-Stat estimates that the compound annual growth rate of China's smartphone market will be 25% throughout the period 2009 to 2013 and that the next wave of smartphone market growth will be driven by lowered barriers-to-entry on both the OS and chipset platform solution sides. This report examines the changing dynamics of China's smartphone OS and chipset platform markets and analyzes how these will drive the smartphone market in coming years. Details of other significant drivers are also provided.
China's blue-ocean netbook market offers the kind of high margins that no PC or CE vendor wants to miss.
The result, however, is intense competition between every player in the netbook value chain. Already, the x86-based platform is being threatened by ARM-based platforms.
To better understand China's netbook market, In-Stat interviewed specialists from several parts of the industry, including operators, netbook vendors, chipset vendors, OEM vendors, and national agencies. Based on this research, the report first outlines the current status of the Chinese netbook market. It also discusses the development of the 3G market and operator plans for 3G services, and analyzes each part of the netbook value chain and its key players. Finally, it provides netbook shipment forecasts based on an analysis of the current market drivers and barriers.
Remote Payment Will Lead China's Mobile Payment Market, Local Payment Will Follow
Payment functions in mobile phones have already become a kind of fundamental technology. Using payment functions, a mobile phone can become a digital wallet containing various forms of money, including debit card, credit card, rechargeable card, coupon, and discount card.
Mobile payment services in China are generally in the initial phase, with usage limited to mobile phone charges and mobile application purchases. Other types of mobile payment, such as NFC mobile phone payment and online payments of the kind used in mobile e-commerce, remain in the trial phase. However, drivers from both the supply side and the demand side are strong enough to drive growth. In addition, industry players in China have recognized the potential growth of the mobile payment market and are beginning to get more actively involved.
To provide these players with a deeper understanding of the mobile payment market, In-Stat generated this report, which clarifies the various kinds of mobile payment services and the ways in which they are used, analyzes business models and potential market structures, and provides forecasts for the market sizes of the different types of mobile payment services in China.
In 2008, the mobile Internet device (MID), became a new member of the UMD family, and the development of the entire UMD market has been positively impacted by its arrival.
In addition to MIDs, ultra mobile PCs (UMPCs), another member of the UMD family, are rapidly evolving. And high-end smartphones, the last member of the UMD family, also can provide the same level of Internet experience as UMPCs or MIDs, such as Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry.
More and more notebook and cellphone makers are recognizing the huge potential of the UMD market. Meanwhile, many popular Internet applications can run on UMDs and an improved wireless environment can provide a faster mobile Internet access. All these initiatives support the belief that UMD is on its way.
This report provides the following: - An overview of China's UMD market, including UMPCs, MIDs, and high-end smartphones - Profiles of the main players, including processor and chipset vendors, OEM vendors - An outline of the elements of the UMD ecosystem and value chain - Discussion of x86-based UMDs and ARM-based UMDs - Shipment forecasts for UMPCs and MIDs in China from 2008 to 2012
Cellular Network Indoor Coverage in China: 3G Drives the Market
In-Stat's research shows that more than 60% of mobile voice/data traffic takes place in indoor locations, including offices, houses, and public transportation stations.
In 2008, China’s mobile market entered its transition from 2G to 3G. The incoming 3G market, with huge market potential, becomes the new arena for the three mobile operators in China: China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom. In-Stat research shows that more than 80% of data traffic in 3G networks will occur indoors. Therefore, indoor coverage becomes the key in winning the 3G market competition.
This report outlines the current deployment of indoor coverage in China, details the popular 2G and 3G indoor coverage technologies, analyzes the future market demand of indoor coverage systems, and discusses the relationship and attitude of every link in the industry chain. In addition, the report provides indoor coverage equipment revenue and overall revenue forecasts.
