Category: Gadgets

Tablet commerce is doing very well in the Philippines

| June 23, 2014

Some of the data most recently released by the IDC has shown that the country is holding strong in shipments.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) has now released its Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker report, which has shown that the Philippines is experiencing extremely strong tablet commerce in terms of the number of those devices that were shipped to the country during the first quarter of this year.

This indicates that the Philippines is an extremely important market among emerging countries.

The IDC data points directly at the Philippines in terms of being highly important for tablet commerce sales. When all is said and done, there were 598,375 of these mobile devices shipped during this year’s first quarter. This represents a massive growth when compared to the same quarter, in 2013. The year over year increase is estimated to be 110 percent, which represents the highest growth among all Southeast Asian countries.

There are certain players that have stood out among the rest in terms of tablet commerce sales.

tablet commerce - Mobile shoppingAt the moment, in the Philippines, it is Apple and Samsung that are holding the lead in terms of tablet sales in the country. The largest number of sales was achieved by Samsung, with Apple holding the second place. That said, those international players continue to face a growing level of competition from local manufacturers.

Vendors from the Philippines are starting to build a considerable amount of strength within their own country. Among the strongest, two that are currently standing out include Starmobile and Cherry Mobile. These two companies have managed to make quite the name for themselves by using powerful mobile marketing campaigns that include endorsements from some of the top celebrities in that part of the world.

According to IDC Philippines associate market analyst, Jerome Dominguez, who made a statement about the tablet commerce achievements in the country, “Backed by cash-rich marketing and A-list celebrity endorsements, Cherry Mobile and Starmobile continue to feed the appetite of Filipino consumers for budget-friendly tablets. The rising demand for tablets from these homegrown players will keep the Philippines tablet market on a growth trajectory in 2014.”

Smartwatch potential from Microsoft could create serious competition

| June 20, 2014

Although the wearable technology hasn’t been confirmed by the tech giant, it could be a meaningful play.

If rumors are correct, then Microsoft will be the next giant to enter into the smartwatch marketplace, with the Surface Watch to be released at some point, likely this year.

The technology news to watch will be the importance of this play in the overall market.

At the moment, there are already a large number of smartwatch devices that have made their way into the market, and there is more than a handful ready to launch before the end of the summer. This can make it very challenging for any single device to stand out and for later additions to carve their way into an already crowded ecosystem. That said, among this considerable crowd of devices, it seems to have been missed that there are very few apps for wearables, which makes it difficult to build a solid appeal for mainstream customers.

Without the apps, it is challenging to show consumers that a smartwatch is worth the added expense.

Smartwatch - MicrosoftA recent BI Intelligence report suggested that the entire wearables app ecosystem is experiencing some significant fragmentation. The cause of this problem is that every new device that is added to the marketplace runs on a platform that is shared by very few others. As of yet, there is little standard in the experience provided by smart gadgets.

Without a dominant operating system or two, or three, it makes it difficult for mobile app developers to come up with a pool of applications that is sizeable enough to make it worthwhile for the average consumer to drop a few hundred dollars on a device that is essentially a nifty accessory to go with his or her smartphone and/or tablet.

That said, BI Intelligence pointed out that Microsoft may be able to stand out from among much of its competition by providing a smartwatch that is not limited in that way. Instead, it could provide cross-platform functionality so that it would function with both Android and iOS platforms as well as with the Xbox One and with desktop PCs.