01/27, 11:10am
ABI says iPhone 4S rise led to Android loss
Apple's record iPhone sales have led to Android shrinking for the first time in its over three-year history, ABI Research estimated Friday. Operating on the belief that next-closest Samsung shipped 33 million smartphones, it had Android's collective share drop from 52.5 percent in the summer to 47 percent this fall. Apart from the iPhone 4S' launch effect, Android had 'sagging midsection' where LG, Motorola, and Sony had been fighting just to become profitable.
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10/24, 4:30pm
ABI finds Android app downloads overtake iOS
New research from ABI shows that Android mobile operating system surpassed Apple's iOS in the market share of downloaded mobile app downloads. During the second quarter of the year, Android saw a 44 percent market share compared to iOS' 31 percent. ABI research associate Lim Shiyang said Android's open source nature is the driving factor behind its recent success.
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10/20, 2:35pm
Study has Apple ahead in tablets, back in Asa
Dueling ABI studies marked two milestones for mobile technology. Getting details on netbook shipments, it found that mobile tablets had passed netbooks for the first time with about 13.6 million shipping versus 7.3 million of the primarily Windows-based netbooks. Apple alone would have outsold the netbook class with 9.25 million iPads, or 68 percent of tablets by itself.
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10/06, 4:55pm
ABI says tablets 3 of 4 ultramobile PCs in 2011
Tablets have grown quickly enough that they're now the vast majority of ultramobile PCs in the US, ABI Research determined Thursday. For the year as a whole, the researchers estimated that the iPad and similar tablets would make up 75 percent of the category. The remaining 25 percent would be led by netbooks, but it would also have to split that share with niche PCs like Mobile Internet Devices.
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07/11, 11:25am
iFixit and ABI deconstruct the Galaxy S II
A new teardown by iFixit has revealed much of the construction of the Galaxy S II and has been joined by a similar look by ABI Research that has revealed some genuinely new parts. While the battery life is unspectacular given the Samsung-made 1.2GHz Exynos chip, the Android 2.3 flagship uses a low-power Infineon XMM6260 baseband chip to keep the power consumption down while reaching full speed. A new CMOS antenna switch, and an all-in-one power amplifier that condenses multiple bands into one also help Samsung manage the smaller size.
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05/20, 5:45pm
ABI says online and telco TV hurting cable
In spite of doubts of cord cutting, at least some cable TV providers are feeling an impact from Internet video and some of their more digitally-aware phone companies, ABI Research found in a new study. Cable still had the lead but dropped from 72 percent of TV viewing worldwide in 2009 to 69 percent this past year. What growth there was took place in areas such as Latin America, where many hadn't had access to cable TV to start with and, in Brazil's case, were getting it through a government access plan.
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04/29, 1:50pm
ABI expects iPhone past Symbian in 2011
Nokia's fall and Apple's rise could be quick enough that the iPhone pushes Nokia to third place in smartphones by the end of the year, ABI Research predicted Friday. Having already slipped behind Android, Nokia's plunge from 40 percent of the smartphone space a year ago to 25 percent in in early 2011 was seen as a sign Nokia would continue to drop just as Apple was climbing. iPhone shipments were up by 15 percent, helped in part by the Verizon iPhone, and at the current rate was growing just as quickly as Nokia was shrinking.
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06/17, 2:25pm
Research shows mobile app stores near height
Mobile app stores could peak in as little as two years, ABI Research warned today. It expects the download rate to peak by 2012 or 2013 and to slowly decline from then onwards. Downloads could still be popular with 1.2 billion apps downloaded in 2015, but the decline would be quick enough that companies may not want to depend heavily on apps in the long term.
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01/30, 12:35pm
ABI on Netbook as Main PC
Only about a tenth of computer buyers would consider using netbooks as their main systems, ABI Research says in a new study. About 11 percent of Americans asked about the devices say they would use one of the small but low-cost portables as their only or primary computer while majority at 79 percent only consider a netbook a companion device to either a main desktop or regular notebook. The more difficult controls and lower performance are seen as sufficiently high-enough barriers that they preclude many from considering netbooks as more than occasional PCs.
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01/29, 2:00pm
Apple Exceeds 1pc Share
Apple has met and pushed past its target of 1 percent of world cellphone market share in 2008, according to an ABI Research study. iPhones now represent 1.1 percent of the entire cellphone market and grew in dramatically from just 0.3 percent during 2007, when the iPhone was only available for half of the year and only in a limited number of countries. The number puts Apple on par with phone veteran HTC and slightly ahead of Sharp.
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01/27, 12:25am
Netbooks '09: huge growth
Social and technological factors have conspired to make 2009 the year of the netbook, according to analysts. ABI Research expects a "perfect storm" to form this year, leading to a market explosion in the netbook category, calling for 35 million units to ship in '09, with an estimated 139 million units shipping by 2013. The convergence of PDA functionality, the data-hub theory of smartphone technology and the mobility of ultramobile PCs find a home in netbooks at a time when low-cost, low power processors and light-weight form factors have arrived.
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11/07, 4:25pm
Blu-ray prices dropping
Holiday prices for older Blu-ray players may fall in the $150-200 range over the holiday season, representing a price drop in spite of the industry's forecasts and expectations, according to ABI Research. The analyst group believes Blu-ray manufacturers need to drop their prices in order to fend off competitive pressure from high-definition movie download services and the need for strong sales during the holiday season after the recent market troubles.
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