App-enabled smart watch shipments to reach 36M by 2018: report

By Rebecca Borison

August 28, 2013

COOKO's smart watch

Although application-enabled smart watch shipments exceeded?one million only this year, a new report from Juniper Research predicts that shipments will reach 36 million per year by 2018.

According to the report, smart watch shipments will be driven by a multi-function segment that can add new functionality, such as tracking fitness activities, to the watches. This new segment is expected to be popularized by players such as Apple and Samsung.

?Juniper believes consumer attitude is crucial here," said Nitin Bhas, senior analyst at Juniper Research, Hampshire, UK. "To some consumers, having a smartphone and smart watch at the same time does not make any sense, especially if it is a ?dumb display? or dashboard device."

?However, with players such as Apple, Samsung and Microsoft expected to launch similar devices, there will be a demand for these items,? he said. ?For any new technology, take-up will be low initially meaning that the demand will be low within the short to medium term at least.

?By educating and publicizing such a device segment to the consumer, Apple and Samsung will indeed act as a catalyst to the market. In addition, being a key influencer, these players? entry into the wearables market will benefit existing players, providing an increase in awareness and adoption in other app ecosystems.?

Smart watches
Smart watches are still fairly new and have yet to really catch on with consumers.

Mr. Bhas believes that consumers are hesitant to take on smart watches since they have yet to present any additional benefits to the current smart device market.

Once watches can do more than a phone or tablet, they will be able to compete for consumers? attention.

This report claims that a new multi-function segment will present this added benefit. The segment will allow consumers to track fitness and sports activities as well as payment and ticketing information, for example.

The new segment is expected to be pushed by Apple and Samsung. These two companies will help validate the device and propel its acceptance.

Mr. Bhas expects there to be an increase in adoption in 2014, with smart watches going mainstream in 2015 or 2016.

He adds that smart watches will only appeal to a specific, limited demographic as opposed to?the broader scope?of tablet and smartphone consumers.

The report also predicts that app-enabled mobile wireless accessory shipments will approach 170 million by 2018.

Figure: Smart Watch Shipments (m) Split by 8 Key Regions 2018: 36 Million

The future of devices
As companies are experimenting with wearable smart devices, it will be interesting to see which devices garner high consumer adoption.

Mr. Bhas expects smart watches to lead the way in short to medium term, but as other types of wearable technology?become more mainstream, he expects smart glasses to surpass smart watches in terms of revenue. His prediction stems from the responses to high initial price points.

The report forecasts that with the adoption of app-enabled smart watches in particular, app developers will find new opportunities in the health, fitness, sports and communications segments within smart watches.

?Most wearable devices are always on and accessible at any time with a constant interaction between the user and the device,? Mr. Bhas said.

?Soon brands will be able to develop a more personal approach to the consumer compared to smartphone,? he said.

?However, this will have to be done without spamming the user and causing any inconvenience. They will need to develop apps that will tie in multiple devices? data together in a useful way.?

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York

Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer. Reach her at rebecca@mobilemarketer.com.

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Samsung Galaxy S III beats Apple's iPhone 5 in customer satisfaction: report

By Rebecca Borison

July 31, 2013

85pc view mobile as gateway to new markets

Samsung?s Galaxy S III has taken the lead over Apple?s iPhone 5 in customer satisfaction, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

The study looked at ten of the top-selling smartphone models from Apple, BlackBerry, Motorola Mobility and Samsung as well as feature phones. While Samsung has yet to overcome Apple overall, this new data suggests that the reality may not be too far away.

?I think it?s important for Samsung, especially since they?ve been working hard for years to close the gap to Apple,? said David VanAmburg, managing director at ACSI, Ann Arbor, MI. ?Obviously in their world they would desire to be on top. This is helping push them that way.

?Our data shows that the release of the iPhone 5 didn?t really help Apple,? he said. ?It didn?t hurt Apple. For all intents and purposes, it?s the same as the iPhone 4s.

?For Samsung there?s a clear advantage of the S III versus the S II. That was a big jump. So that really was a game changer.?

Smartphone ratings
The Galaxy S III, Samsung?s flagship model for 2012, received an ACSI benchmark of 84, on a scale of 0 to 100. Another Samsung model, Galaxy Note II, also got an 84.

Apple?s iPhone 5, on the other hand, got a benchmark of 82.

The report also revealed that Apple consumers don?t even see much difference from one model to the next. The iPhone 4s matched the rating of the iPhone 5, and the iPhone 4 got an 81.

Apple's iPhone 5

Galaxy models, on the other hand, are growing in consumer satisfaction, with Galaxy S II, the precursor to the S III, receiving a score of 78. This may show that Samsung is improving its product and customer experience at a faster pace than Apple.

Overall, Samsung received a lower rating than Apple, 76 compared to 81, but this may be because Samsung also offers feature phones, while Apple only offers smartphones. Nevertheless, Samsung has still achieved a seven percent gain since last year, while Apple saw a two percent drop compared with 2012.

Interestingly, while American customers prefer Samsung, Korean customers prefer Apple.

Additionally, ACSI data shows that smartphone users are more satisfied than feature phone users. Smartphones overall earned a customer satisfaction score of 76, while feature phones only got a 69.

With ratings of 67 and 64 for BlackBerry?s Curve and Bold models, it seems that BlackBerry will not be catching up to Samsung and Apple any time soon. Even feature phones beat BlackBerry?s phones.

BlackBerry's phones rate lowest among smartphones

Winning the race
The smartphone competition is a complicated race for brands such as Samsung and Apple.

An April Yankee Group survey showed that 42 percent of those planning to buy a new smartphone in the next six months intend to buy an iPhone, while only 17 percent intend to buy a Samsung phone. Yet research from Strategy Analytics showed that Samsung shipped nearly twice as many smartphones as Apple during the first-quarter of 2013 (see story).

The fact that customers are not?seeing any improvement in Apple phones may signify that Samsung will finally be able to take the lead overall, but Apple is not nearing extinction anytime soon.

According to Mr. VanAmburg, Apple phones have not shown a wow factor in a while, and smartphone consumers tend to look for the new and the different. It will be interesting to see how Apple?s next phone compares to the iPhone 5.

?There?s lots of healthy competition in the phone industry,? Mr. VanAmburg said. ?Customer satisfaction leads directly to a couple of key outcomes for companies.

?One being a strong likelihood that a customer will purchase either the same brand or another brand the company makes the next time they have a need for a cellphone,? he said. ?It creates high levels of customer retention.

?Second thing it does is when consumers are extremely satisfied with Galaxy S III, for example, they?re much more likely to tell their family and friends about that model, which drives word of mouth, which creates new business. All as a result from high levels of satisfaction from the original use of the product.?

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York

Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer. Reach her at rebecca@mobilemarketer.com.

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IPad, Galaxy Tab rise in market share as Kindle Fire plummets: report

By Rebecca Borison

August 27, 2013

Apple still in the lead for tablets

Apple?s iPad rose to 70.1 percent of July 2013 market share, Samsung?s Galaxy Tab rose to 11.1 percent and Kindle Fire dropped to 10.1 percent, according to a report by Jumptap.

Apple seems to have maintained its monopoly over advertisers, while other competitors are struggling to catch up. Yet, Samsung?s 5.8 percent increase from last July?s market share is somewhat optimistic for the company?s chances at competing with Apple.

?While Samsung is most certainly the 'King of the Droids?, it doesn?t come close to having Apple?s share,? said Matt Duffy, vice president of marketing at Jumptap, Boston. ?We do, however, predict that Samsung will continue to grow share against other handsets and Android tablets.

?Marketers and advertisers are looking, first and foremost, to understand their audiences,? he said. ?The clear message from this data is that consumers remain split between iOS and Android devices. Therefore, marketers should take a cross-platform, cross-device approach to maximize target audience reach.?

To determine market share percentages, Jumptap looked at consumer usage and interaction for each of the smart devices.

Competing devices
Even though Apple is clearly light years ahead of Samsung and Amazon in terms of tablets, the data points to an interesting shift for the latter two companies.

A 5.8 percent increase for the Galaxy Tab is significant, as is an 11.4 percent drop for Kindle Fire.

The Jumptap report also looked at market share for smartphones.

The iPhone increased 9.6 percent to 41.4 percent market share, but the iPod touch dropped 10.1 percent to 15.4 percent. This may signify that consumers are stopping to see a need for a smart device without phone capabilities.

Samsung Galaxy S rose 3.8 percent to 13 percent of July 2013 market share. Again, Apple is clearly in the lead, but Samsung could be slowly catching up.

In terms of overall brand market share, Apple remains at the top, but fairly stagnant year-over-year while Samsung is up 5 percent.

Smartphone forecast
While Jumptap?s report presents Apple as a majority of market share, another recent report by Juniper revealed that Apple?s monopoly in smartphones may wane by 2018.

Juniper predicted that in 2018, Apple and Samsung?s smartphone shipments will be around 800 million, a 17 percent increase in global shipments from all vendors in 2012. Yet, Apple makes up a slightly smaller share than Samsung.

Apple (blue) and Samsung (red) will take a big chunk out of the smartphone pie

The report also forecasted that other vendors will break into the space and increasingly compete with Apple and Samsung.

?When we look at the global smartphone market in terms of total shipments, Apple has never held a majority,? said Michael Wiggins, research analyst at Juniper, Hampshire, England. ?However they have always been a major player that is featured in all major markets and this will not change going forward, Apple?s consumer base is exceedingly loyal and they have excellent branding.

?In terms of smartphone shipments, Samsung overtook Apple in 2012 and will continue to ship more units than Apple going forward,? he said. ?This is because Apple?s target demographics, the high-end of the smartphone market, has diminished in global proportion and will continue to do so. This benefits Samsung as they have a far wider product range that feature at all price points.

?Essentially this concentration of hundreds of millions of shipments around two vendors gives significant power to those two vendors, which could mean suppressed margins for marketers.?

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York

Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer. Reach her at rebecca@mobilemarketer.com.

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Report takes hard look at senate immigration legislation and the impact on health care

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 12 Aug 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Report takes hard look at senate immigration legislation and the impact on health care

A landmark immigration bill passed by the Senate would create new pathways to citizenship and provide a much-needed boost to the U.S. economy but would do little to ease immigration-related disparities in health care, according to a new report.

"The Senate bill represents the most significant bipartisan effort to reform immigration in many years," says Leighton Ku, PhD, MPH, the author of the new report and the director of the Center for Health Policy Research at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS). "It would modernize the nation's outmoded immigration system and let unauthorized immigrants earn a pathway to citizenship, but when it comes to health care, the bill offers no major changes."

The new report, which was funded in part by the Commonwealth Fund, analyzes the impact of the bill overall and specifically on health care. Ku found that the legislation would help clear the path for new legal immigration and help unauthorized immigrants earn legal status over more than a decade. That in turn, would expand the nation's workforce, bolster the economy and could help reduce the federal deficit, he says. The bill would also limit the future flow of unauthorized immigrants. But the issue brief also says that increasing access to health care for immigrants was not a high priority item in designing the bill, particularly in light of the continuing controversies about health reform.

For example, many not-yet-legal immigrants would be ineligible for most of the reforms under the Affordable Care Act, such as premium assistance or cost sharing subsidies, according to the analysis. Under the Senate bill, these immigrants could gain legal status, but remain ineligible for government assistance in obtaining health insurance or access to health care.

"Experience tells us that legalizing unauthorized immigrants will help them get better jobs in the long run. In turn, this may help them get job-based private health insurance," said Ku, who is also a professor in the Department of Health Policy at SPHHS.

Other key findings of the issue brief:

Because so many immigrants will remain without health insurance, there will continue to be a strain on the U.S. safety net of health care facilities. It will be important to maintain the nation's health care safety net, which includes community health centers and essential hospitals, to care for those who remain uninsured, including both immigrants and the native-born. The Senate bill would also make it easier for physicians and nurses from other countries to gain legal status in the United States - if they agree to provide care in rural or underserved regions. That provision could ease the health care workforce shortages in many parts of the nation. Since immigration reform will result in more people entering the United States, there will be a greater need for language assistance to help the newcomers who have a limited ability to speak English. Although federal policy already calls on health care providers to offer translation services, language barriers continue to be a common problem.

The issue brief notes that the bill still faces a rocky road ahead in terms of passage into law. The bill was developed after months of work by the so-called "Gang of Eight" Senators and passed with a strong bipartisan 68 to 32 vote. But the bill has elicited resistance now that the immigration reform debate has moved to the U.S. House of Representatives, Ku says. Despite the momentum that built up around the passage of this bill, the future of immigration reform remains uncertain, Ku says.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our health insurance / medical insurance section for the latest news on this subject.

The issue brief, The Bipartisan Senate Immigration Bill: Implications for Health Coverage and Health Access, can be viewed at the SPHHS Department of Health Policy's website. A blog post on the same subject can be viewed at the Commonwealth Fund website.

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Pimco, BlackRock, buy chunks of Verizon's record bond deal - report

Sept 12 | Thu Sep 12, 2013 8:42pm EDT

Sept 12 (Reuters) - Leading bond-fund managers Pacific Investment Management Co. and BlackRock Inc bought about $13 billion of the debt Verizon Communications Inc sold in its record $49 billion bond offering, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Pimco, a unit of Germany's Allianz SE, bought about $8 billion of the bonds, while BlackRock purchased about $5 billion, the Journal said, citing the people.

Both firms discussed interest rates on Verizon's debt early on with the company and the bankers involved in selling the bonds, the daily reported.

Pimco, BlackRock and Verizon were not immediately available for comment when reached by Reuters.

Verizon, the world's biggest telecom company, set a new record for the largest corporate debt offering when it launched the $49 billion, eight-tranche bond on Wednesday, partly to finance the $130 billion buyout of its wireless operations from Vodafone Group Plc.

The offering drew a total of $101 billion in orders from pension funds, endowments, institutional buyers and wealth managers hungry for higher-yielding securities.

The final size of the bond was at the top end of the $45-$49 billion range that the market expected, following demand in excess of $100 billion.

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Syrian forces responsible for Banias massacres: U.N. report

A Free Syrian Army fighter aims his weapon behind sandbags in the eastern al-Ghouta, near Damascus, September 9, 2013. Picture taken September 9, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Raje Alsori

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA | Wed Sep 11, 2013 1:39pm EDT

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. rights investigators have established that Syrian government forces were almost certainly responsible for two massacres last May in which up to 450 civilians were killed, a report published on Wednesday said.

The report documents nine mass killings in all, attributing all but one to government forces, but said both government and rebel fighters had committed war crimes including murder, hostage-taking and shelling of civilians.

With more than 100,000 dead in the Syrian war, there was little sign that reports of atrocities would spur international action until last month, when allegations that President Bashar al-Assad's forces had gassed hundreds of civilians sparked a threat of U.S. strikes, and furious international diplomacy.

The killings in Baida and Ras al-Nabaa, two pockets of rebel sympathizers surrounded by villages loyal to Assad on the outskirts of the town of Banias, did not involve fighting with rebels and appeared designed to send a message of deterrence.

The U.N. commission of inquiry has not been allowed into Syria, but its 20 investigators carried out 258 interviews with refugees, defectors and others, in the region and in Geneva, including via Skype, for their 11th report in two years.

In Baida, it said between 150 and 250 civilians had allegedly been killed, including 30 women, apparently executed, who were found in one house. It said armed rebels were not active in the area at the time.

"Testimonies were consistent that members of the National Defence Forces were actively involved in the raids and in many cases leading them," the 42-page report said.

"Accordingly, there are reasonable grounds to believe that government forces and affiliated militias including the National Defence Forces are the perpetrators of the al-Bayda (Baida) massacre.

The next day, as word spread that militia fighters were advancing with army support, hundreds of civilians tried to flee the neighboring village of Ras al-Nabaa, but were pushed back at checkpoints. Government forces proceeded to shell the village and then militia fighters moved in.

"As they raided the village, civilians were captured and executed," the report said, adding: "The operation did not occur in the context of a military confrontation. Government forces were in full control of the area.

It gave a figure of 150-200 dead in Ras al-Nabaa.

GOVERNMENT SILENCE

The Syrian government kept silent about the killings at the time but a Syrian intelligence officer, speaking to Reuters anonymously, acknowledged that the perpetrators were government loyalists, including some from the surrounding Alawite villages.

The conflict began in March 2011 as an uprising against Assad and descended into a civil war where mostly Sunni Muslim rebels are pitted against Assad's forces, who are backed by Shi'ite Muslim Iran and Hezbollah.

The only deliberate slaughter of civilians attributed to rebel forces in the period of investigation was in June, when rebels captured Hatla in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor.

"Anti-government armed group fighters conducted home invasions, killing and summarily executing (by shooting at close range) many Shia including at least 30 civilians, among them children, women and elderly," the report said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group that has reported abuses on both sides of the conflict, said at the time that 60 people had died in the attack, mostly pro-Assad Shi'ite militiamen.

The U.N. report, which largely covered incidents between May and July, accused forces loyal to Assad of bombing schools and hospitals, and rebels of carrying out summary executions after sentencing by Islamic Sharia courts lacking due process.

The commission, led by Paulo Pinheiro of Brazil, urged the U.N. Security Council to hold perpetrators accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The investigators, who include former U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte, analyzed photographs, video and satellite imagery, as well as forensic and medical records, to draw up their report.

The team also verified the killing of 450 people during an offensive by Syrian government forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters to retake the strategic town of Qusair. Food and water were cut off during a siege, and the town was heavily shelled.

"Approximately half were civilian casualties, killed primarily in the shelling and aerial bombardment of the town in the early days of the offensive," the report said.

U.S. President Barack Obama asked Congress on Tuesday to delay a vote on authorizing a military strike against Syria in retaliation for its use of chemical weapons, to give time to a Russian plan to take away Syria's chemical weapons.

The U.N. experts said they had received allegations of chemical weapons use, "predominantly by government forces", but could not give details of the incidents, some of which have been investigated by U.N. weapons inspectors in the last few weeks.

(This story has been corrected to change figure in second paragraph for total massacres to nine from eight)

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Tom Miles and Kevin Liffey)

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U.S. teenage birth rate at new low, government report shows

By Lisa Maria Garza

Fri Sep 6, 2013 10:01pm EDT

n">(Reuters) - The rate of teenage pregnancy in the United States is at a historic low, and has dropped by more than half in the last two decades, declining across nearly all racial and ethnic groups, according to a government report released on Friday.

The rate for girls ages 15-19 dropped to 29.4 births per 1,000 last year from 31.3 per 1,000 in 2011. This was less than half the 61.8 births per 1,000 teenage girls recorded in 1991.

"That is an astonishing success in terms of this particular topic of debate," said Brady Hamilton, a statistician with the National Center for Health Statistics who led the data collection. The Center is part of the U.S. government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The numbers have steadily declined over the last two decades, except for a brief spike in 2006 and 2007, Hamilton said. Among racial and ethnic groups, the largest decline since 2007 was reported for Hispanic teenagers, for whom the rate dropped 39 percent to 46.3 births per 1,000 to 2012 from 2007.

Last year, the rate of births for white, Black, Hispanic and Asian or Pacific Islander teenagers declined from 5 to 7 percent compared to 2011.

Bill Albert, a spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, said it was impossible to predict if the drop in teenage mothers will continue, so it is important for parents and policymakers not to mistake progress for absolute victory.

"Obviously they are making better decisions, having less sex and using more contraception," he said.

The Obama administration has invested in efforts aimed at lowering the rate of teenage pregnancies. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gave $155 million in teenage pregnancy prevention grants to states, school districts and non-profit organizations.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

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