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Smartphone Market grows 61% in 2011 [Market Share Stats]

guest — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:12:54 +0000

IDC recently released stats on Worldwide Smartphone market and its growth has beaten analysts expectations as well. According to the the IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, Smartphone manufacturers shipped 157.8 million units in 4Q11 compared to 102.0 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010. The YoY growth of 54.7% was higher than the 49.2% growth registered in 3Q11.

Top Five Worldwide Smartphone Vendors Market in 2011

Vendor	FY 2011 Shipment Volumes	FY 2011 Market Share	FY 2010 Shipment Volumes	FY 2010 Market Share	Year Over Year Change
Samsung	94.0	19.1%	22.9	7.5%	310.5%
Apple	93.2	19.0%	47.5	15.6%	96.2%
Nokia	77.3	15.7%	100.1	32.9%	-22.8%
Research In Motion	51.1	10.4%	48.8	16.0%	4.7%
HTC	43.5	8.9%	21.7	7.1%	100.5%
Others	132.3	26.9%	63.7	20.9%	107.7%
Total	491.4	100.0%	304.7	100.0%	61.3%

The total smartphone shipment volumes reached 491.4 million units in 2011, a whopping increase over 304.7 million units in 2010. However, in percentage basis, the growth was lower in 2011 (61.3%) as compared to 2010 (75.7%). IDC report also states that by December 2011, one out of every three mobiles phones shipped worldwide was a smartphone.

Top Five Worldwide Smartphone Vendors Market Share Changes

Apple:

Apple regained its market leader position by launching iPhone 4S worldwide. It also reached a new shipment volume record for itself and for the entire industry for a single quarter. The holiday season, delay in the product launch from 3Q to 4Q and the addition of multiple mobile operators has helped Apple achieve this record. The much hyped 4S has left few Apple fanboy’s disappointed as it lacked 4G LTE connectivity or a different size screen.

Samsung:

Samsung too had its share of milestones. It broke the 30 million units mark for the first time and also posted the largest year-over-year increase of the top lot (yeah true!! Who bothered about Samsung phones couple of years back ;)). Samsung also has concentrated on expanding in all kinds of market with Galaxy S2, Galaxy Nexus in the high end sector, Galaxy Ace and galaxy Y in the mass market. The biggest achievement for Samsung though was that it managed to marginally beat Apple in terms of number of units shipped!

Nokia

This is something which Nokia wouldn’t be proud of – Nokia posted the largest year-over-year decrease amongst the top manufacturers. But, Nokia has been in news again for good reasons due to the release of first set of windows smartphones – Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800. Nokia claims that it shipped over a million units’ in its debut quarter. However, the Symbian phones are losing their charm and Nokia could stop shipping these Symbian’s soon.

Blackberry

2011 has been a mixed bag of results for RIM (Blackberry). Firstly, the good things – The new BB OS 7-powered BlackBerry phones reached new markets. And then the not so good things – the global network outage in October (I almost died laughing at few of the jokes on BB!). Also the news that the first BB 10-powered smartphones will arrive only by the end of year 2012 has left the BB fans disappointed.

HTC

HTC has timed its releases quite well and it has been releasing the smartphones from time to time. It not only relied on Android smartphones but also released Windows Phone’s like Titan and Radar models. This strategy of HTC catered to both the mobile operators as well as the customers quite a well. However, when compared to the last quarter, HTC has shipped less number of phones.

[Source]

[This post has been written by Srikanth of PriceShred.com – An online marketplace to buy or sell second hand mobile in India.]

Wow! Indians most willing to donate to Wikipedia…

Arun Prabhudesai — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:38:55 +0000

This is one news that has made me really happy – According to the study published by Wikimedia, Indians have expressed strongest desire to donate to Wikipedia. Over 42% of Indians are willing to donate as compared to 33% Americans.

Wikipedia concluded its annual fundraising on January 2nd and raised a record-breaking USD 20 million from more than one million donors from nearly every country in the world. Wikipedia carried out a study to understand these donors and have published the findings.

Highlights of Wikipedia study findings:

- On average 47% of readers did not know that Wikipedia was a non-profit entity run entirely on donations!

- Russia (64%), Brazil (56%) and the United States (56%) were the top 3 countries who lacked awareness. While Egypt (70%) and India (61%) had highest level of Wikipedia’s not-for-profit status! Even 28% of readers who had edited Wikipedia were also unaware of the same.

- While more men (44%) donated than women (36%), women are much more likely to be continued supporters, with 14% of them having donated more than 5 times, compared to only 6% of men.

- Readers from India (42%), Egypt (33%) and US (33%) expressed a strongest desire to donate. readers from Germany (13%), France (11%) and Japan (15%) were relatively less likely to donate.

- 46% of the all readers said that they could not donate because of affordability factor. 57% of Indian readers cited affordability as a reason that they could not donate.

It is really interesting that Indians are generally more knowledgeable about Wikipedia as compared to their global peers and at the same time they are also more willing to donate than others.

Indian MBA students prefer better Job Profile over hefty Pay Packages: ASSOCHAM

Viral Dholakia — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:57:12 +0000

The education system is evolving at a breakneck speed with changes in the shape and contours of the economy and real-world business practices. Under such circumstances, it becomes all the more imperative for an aspiring B-school candidate to evaluate the value and application of the course relative to the current and near-future market.

Moreover, even reports suggest that prominent management degrees, like MBA, are gradually losing its sheen in the past few years, with the interplay of various macro environmental factors, and the growing need to restructure business education to be more practical in its approach.

During such competitive times, B-school graduates need to increasingly focus on the job profile and growth plans to move up the value chain in the organizational structure, rather than stressing on the hefty pay packets ands short-sighted career visibility.

On similar lines, an ASSOCHAM survey rightly indicated that over 83% of MBAs from top B-schools prefer job profile and long term career planning over initial tempting salary offers. The report further quips that these future industry managers prefer the work profile combined with the growth opportunities, resisting hefty pay packages tagged with saturated job profile.

B-school graduates need to evaluate the organization in terms of employee satisfaction, salary and job content and productivity before enrolling into it. For example, a highly skilled job provides for the individual to use complex abilities, whereas a routine job provides less growth prospects.

Further, the report points out that leisurely high standard of living and short sighted goals such as family expectations and responsibilities have taken a back seat in the contemporary era, with the preference for future growth opportunities and rewards back in the reckoning.

It is also said that the long-term rapport between the organization and an employee is likely to stay firm, where pay packets ceases to be the sole objective of the workers. Those who are well satisfied with their pay and job status are less likely to leave the company.

The survey finding provides that 60% of the respondents opted to work for companies in the growth phase over an established organization in relatively saturated phase; whereas 75% of the Indian MBA students wish to work abroad in economies such as the US, UK and Australia that provide better working conditions and promising growth potential.

While Banking has emerged as the most sought after industry for more than half (51%) of MBA students surveyed; Consultancy (44%), Marketing (40%) , IT (38%), Finance analyst (35%) and Mutual funds (27%) account for more than quarter of the respondent preferences.

India remains most challenging country for Expats!

Arun Prabhudesai — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:50:11 +0000

There is no doubt that India is one of the toughest countries to live for expats – and the recently released Expat Explorer survey conducted by HSBC reveals exactly that. Among the 31 countries surveyed, expats have ranked India as the toughest country to live based on their experience of about 30 different parameters. The HSBC survey findings are based on survey of 3,385 expats answering questions on life overseas.

Expats experience in India on various parameters:

India’s best ranking is only a modest 10th on 2 parameters – “Social Life” and “Learning the local language”. The latter is easier because India has plenty of people who speak English, making it easier for expats to learn the local language. Also, unlike most middle east countries, India does not pose too many restrictions on social gatherings, parties and night-life ensuring that India is ranked better on “Social Life” aspect

On the other hand India ranked 25^th or below on 11 parameters – and lowest at 31^st on 2 parameters – Setting up utilities & Fitting in new culture.

I am surprised though with some of the findings of HSBC survey if you see some of the countries at the top of the list of being friendly with expats (Expat Experience parameter). Thailand comes at number 1 position followed by Canada and South Africa.

List of Top 10 countries for expat friendliness

The above chart is for expat experience in foreign country alone and I am surprised that United states ranks a lowly 10^th while Thailand is ranked the highest on expat experience. It is also interesting to note, that most of the countries in top 10 are smaller developing nations. The worst countries on friendliness apart from India (31^st) are Russia (30^th), United Kingdom (29^th), China (28^th) and Qatar (27^th).

If you consider things like Income, house, Cars, holidays, domestic help etc, which are segregated under “economies” in the survey, India does rank a modest 16th, just behind United States. The Best country for expats from “Economies” perspective is Saudi Arabia, while the worst country is Italy!

You can check out the entire Expat Explorer survey here!

Majority Indians still prefer going abroad to work!

Arun Prabhudesai — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:36:57 +0000

Indians are still attracted to West when it come to employment – Although, India is dubbed globally as land of opportunities, majority of Indians want to go abroad to work. That’s the finding by Work monitor report released by Ma Foi Randstad.

And if you think money is the criteria for the move abroad, you are wrong. The report states that while globally, less than a third of the respondents are willing to move abroad for a job without a pay hike, employees in India do not have a problem with relocation – Infact, majority of them are willing to do so!

Indians have highest Mobility Index ranking across the world of 144 followed by Brazil, China & Mexico. Also, younger Indian’s (18 – 34 years) are more willing than older ones (35 to 64 years)

Highlights of the Work Monitor Report:

45% of the workforce believes in focus on promotion, while 34% believe in doing something
different.
On average 8 out of 10 employees expect to receive a pay hike, bonuses and additional employment benefits in year 2012.
Although the general economic outlook was gloomy in 2011, close to 80% employee feel that their organization had a good year except for senior executives. 64% of Employees with salary of 10 Lakh p.a and higher felt their organization had a good year.
A very high proportion (81%) of men expect to work beyond their retirement age and a nearly equally high proportion of women (74%) expect to work beyond their retirement age.

It is a known fact that Indians want to move abroad, because of better infrastructure, better pays, better standard of living among other things. However, over last decade, Indian cities have also grown and pay scales have risen drastically. Yet the propensity to move abroad has not lessened. Although, we have been constantly hearing of reverse brain drain, interest of going abroad remains very high among Indians.

I have a question for readers – Do you think this trend will remain in coming years as well? or do you think, given the growth India is expected to have in coming years, more and more people will prefer to stay back and explore more opportunities in India itself?

3 of Every 5 Indian Internet Users Now Shops Online [Comscore]

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:57:10 +0000

According to the latest report released by Comscore, 60% of all Indian internet users visited a Online Ecommerce site in November 2011, with the number of online shoppers increasing 18 percent in the past year.

Over past 1 year, coupon or the deal sites have gained maximum traction with a jump of 629% compared to last year. Online retail of apparels have also seen quite a jump (166%), with Indians now getting more and more comfortable buying clothes online. No wonder Clothing ecommerce sites are getting loads of interest from VC community!

However, traditionally popular online items – Books – witnessed a negative growth of 3 percent as compared to last year.

According to Comscore Media Metrix report, 27.2 million online users in India age 15 and older accessed the Retail category from a home or work computer in November 2011, up 18% compared to last year. Online Coupon sites received 7.6 million visitors followed by Consumer Electronics with 7.1 Million visitors.Comparison Shopping sites got 5.8 million online users, an increase of 25 percent from the previous year.

Popular Shopping Categories by Unique Visitors

Top Retail Subcategories by Total Unique Visitors (000) November 2011 vs. November 2010 Total India – Visitors Age 15+ Home/Work Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Total Unique Visitors (000)
	Nov-2010	Nov-2011	% Change
Total Internet : Total Audience	41,169	46,390	13
Retail	23,021	27,171	18
Coupons	1,048	7,647	629
Consumer Electronics	6,334	7,122	12
Comparison Shopping	4,611	5,775	25
Computer Hardware	5,079	5,708	12
Apparel	1,735	4,609	166
Movies	2,587	3,076	19
Books	2,559	2,494	-3
Flowers/Gifts/Greetings	2,132	2,323	9
Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories	1,575	2,134	36
Home	1,605	1,966	22

Comscore also released Top online retail and Coupon sites based on Total Unique Visitors. What surprised me in the table given below was that top 3 retail sites visited by Indians are actually all non-Indian… Take a look. I am not sure if so many people really buy from Amazon sites! Additionally, Infibeam, which I thought was quite popular in India does not even figure in the Top 10 list of retail sites – Would love to hear your opinion on this!

Top 10 Retail Sites by Unique Visitors (000)

November 2011 Total India – Visitors Age 15+ Home/Work Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Total Unique Visitors (000)	% Reach
Total Internet : Total Audience	46,390	100.0%
Retail	27,171	58.6%
Amazon Sites	6,805	14.7%
Apple.com Worldwide Sites	3,426	7.4%
Samsung Group	2,759	5.9%
Flipkart.com	2,675	5.8%
Homeshop18.com	2,286	4.9%
Naaptol.com	2,145	4.6%
Bookmyshow.com	2,125	4.6%
Myntra.com	2,110	4.5%
Priceindia.in	2,047	4.4%
Alibaba.com Corporation	1,973	4.3%

Top 10 Coupon Sites by Total Unique Visitors (000)

November 2011 Total India – Visitors Age 15+ Home/Work Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Total Unique Visitors (000)	% Reach
Total Internet : Total Audience	46,390	100.0%
Coupons	7,647	16.5%
Snapdeal.com	5,185	11.2%
Mydala.com	1,359	2.9%
Crazeal.com	989	2.1%
Dealsandyou.com	664	1.4%
Koovs.com	491	1.1%
Khojguru.com	239	0.5%
Coupondunia.in	117	0.3%
Sosasta.com	91	0.2%
Deals2buy.com	86	0.2%
Retailmenot.com	83	0.2%

All Tables from Comscore Media Report

Top 10 B-schools of India in 2011!

Kaushambi — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 05:48:30 +0000

A list of the best B-schools in India is not only popular and a favorite on Trak.in since many years, but also a list which is widely awaited and read throughout the country. Here is a comprehensive list giving a snapshot of the top players this year, as rated by a combination of reliable sources. There are about four or 5 different surveys that are carried out through-out the year on Indian B-School Rankings. We have tried to put together a list that presents the list based on rankings of these different surveys

Let’s take a look at this list, in no particular hierarchy.

IIM Ahmedabad

To put IIM-A in the first spot has been a little controversial because surveys by HT, CNBC TV 18, ET and Zee Business School placed it at the number one spot while the Business Today Survey placed it at the third spot. The CNBC survey has also placed IIM-A at the top in the list of Government B-schools in India and B-schools by Industry Interface.

"It is a positive development (that the gap is reducing). But foreign universities – once they are allowed to set up campuses in India- will be our main challenge."

Samir Baruah, IIM-A director (Source: HT)

IIM Bangalore

Business Today’s ranking placed IIM-B on the first spot in 2011 while CNBC TV 18 and HT surveys placed it second in their lists of top Indian B-schools in 2011. IIM-B is particularly known for its research facilities and par – excellence faculty. It also has one of the best stocked libraries in the Indian subcontinent with over 1.83 lakh titles and subscriptions to more than 4,000 academic journals.

"Today, business is not isolated from government and society. They are all intertwined. What we teach is management – of private businesses, of public institutions and of not-for-profit organizations."

Pankaj Chandra, IIM-B director (Source: HT)

IIM Calcutta

With a ranking on the second spot of the Business Today Survey and on the third spot with the HT, CNBC TV 18 and the HT Survey 2011, IIM-C has been rated so because if its top notch placement record, teaching devices and techniques and faculty extraordinaire. The kind of research work that is produced by the IIM-C academia makes is consistently one of the best Indian B-schools year after year.

"One of the areas we are very strong is finance. Three years ago we started the finance lab, the largest of its kind in the country. In finance, we have been offering many courses."

Dr. Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director of IIM Calcutta (Source: BT)

IIM-Indore

While the Business Today Survey places IIM-I on the number 4 spot, the HT Survey places it on the fifth and the Zee Business School on the seventh. IIM-I doesn’t figure on the list of top Indian B-schools in the CNBC TV 18 survey at all. IIM-I takes a top spot in most surveys because of features like its fully electronic library, 1.5 year executive MBA course, state of the art IT tools and applications and its newly introduced UG management program.

IIM Lucknow

Although IIM-L lacks the brand value of its sister IIMs but it never falls short of being on the list of top 10 Indian B-schools year after year and 2011 is no different. For Business Today, IIM-L falls on the fifth place, the HT and CNBC TV 18 Surveys give it the fourth spot and the Zee Business School survey keeps IIM-L on the eight spot. IIM-L is sought after because of the hands-on exposure it gives because of its connections with industry and its experts.

IIM Kozhikode

IIM-K which has now shifted to Kunnamangalam in Kerala and is well known for being the first Asian institute to offer a distance learning program called Interactive Distance Learning (IDL) for working professionals. While IIM-K doesn’t figure on the HT Survey list at all, it gets the tenth spot on the Zee Business School survey, sixth spot on the Business Today survey and the tenth spot on the CNBC TV 18 survey. IIM-K is also well known for offering the widest range of programs in management education in India.

XLRI, Jamshedpur

You will see a distinct variation in the rankings allotted to XLRI in various surveys. While the ET rankings recorded a second spot for this institution famous for HR studies, Business Today gave it the tenth spot, CNBC TV 18 gave it the sixth spot and HT gave it the eight spot. XLRI has come up with a few new initiatives such as partnership with foreign schools for providing an MS in Finance, a Masters in Organizational Development with Cleveland’s Weatherhead School of Management, Masters in International Business with Lille Catholic University, France and international executive MBA in collaboration with University of Minnesota.

"XLRI is the only B-school where the study of business ethics is compulsory in all programmes."

Pranabesh Roy, Dean of Academics, XLRI (Source: HT)

Indian School of Business, Hyderabad

Ranked six in the HT Survey, eighth in the Business Today survey, ninth in the Zee Business School Survey and twelfth in the ET Survey for 2011, ISB too has been trying to make its way up the list of top Indian B-Schools year after year. But the fact that it has been only ten years since it was established, these rankings for ISB are commendable. Many are attracted to the ISB due to its list of international faculty, invitation to industry experts, high placement levels and affiliations with MIT Sloan, London Business School and Fletcher School. ISB also plans to open a second campus in Mohali, near Chandigarh which will be functional by 2012.

"Our single biggest toughest challenge is to build faculty. In 2004, we started with four and today we are at 50 and in the next four years I want to take this number to 100."

Ajit Rangnekar, Dean of ISB Hyderabad (Source: BT)

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi

Playing around in positions in between the fifth and the tenth on most lists in the last few years, Government of India’s vey own institution of foreign trade studies has managed to make it to the seventh position on the Business Today list. It surprising to see how IIFT does not figure in any other list of top 10 Indian B-School as yet, considering it is one of the toughest schools to get into – approximately 85 k students for 220 seats!

IIM Shillong

Featuring only in the Business Today list at the ninth position and the Zee Business School Survey at the eleventh position, IIM-S boats of a great campus, followed by a theme of sustainability in business. Earlier known as Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management, it was set up so that the north eastern parts of India have their very own access to the legacy of the IIMs.

If this list was stretched to the top 20, you would have seen names like AMITY, S P Jain Institute of Management & Research, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, NMIMS and so on in the list.

Linkedin most overused Buzzwords 2011 – Indians go from “DYNAMIC” to “EFFECTIVE”!

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:18:25 +0000

When ever you come across any resume or a LinkedIn profile or even a bio written by self – More often than not, you will find buzzwords, which have become kind of default. Infact, sometimes they are so overused, that they create an exact opposite impression of what the meaning stands.

Linkedin yesterday released their survey on LinkedIn’s most overused Buzzwords across the world in 2011. The results were collated based on the words used in profiles of over 135 million LinkedIn users worldwide – India now has over 11 million LinkedIn users.

Here are most overused words segregated by profile countries:

Creative: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States
Multinational: Brazil
Dynamic: France
Effective: India
Problem solving: Italy
Motivated: Ireland
Managerial: Spain
Track record: Singapore

If you take the words used in the profiles at face value, users in India are supposedly the most “effective”. LinkedIn releases this survey every year – In their 2010 study, Indian’s were mostly “Dynamic” which this year has converted into being “effective”.

It is my personal opinion that when you use these kind of buzzwords, you are just trying to mask what you are exactly not!

What’s your take?

Social Media: Indian CMOs find themselves Unprepared [Survey]

Ankit Agarwal — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:06:46 +0000

It is now well established that enterprise social media adoption is as real as it gets and its not a fad that businesses are experimenting with. Gartner’s predictions on the role of social media as a collaboration and business transformation tool are not without their own merits.

However, social media adoption in enterprises is still at an early stage and the early adopters (which I think is the FMCG / CPG sector) are experimenting with the medium and tasting success as they go.

The biggest challenge when it comes to social media in enterprises is not really due to lack of a definite answer for "What’s In It For Us’ because frankly social media is finding its applications right from marketing, customer service, lead generation etc. The challenge when it comes to enterprise adoption of social media is around the ownership and the lack of a ‘What really works in Social Media‘.

Social media is disrupting traditional marketing in more ways than one. From the consistent addition of new platforms and the best ways to leverage these platforms to making the CMO increasingly collaborate with other CXO level executives in other departments, social media is revolutionizing marketing in enterprises.

A recent CXO survey conducted by IBM Global Services including 80 Indian CMOs (overall 1700 CMOs) throws some interesting insights on social media adoption in the enterprise.

The overall study showed that the market was changing faster than CMOs felt prepared for. The factors that they said were the most important ones were surprisingly the ones they felt least prepared for.

Indian CMOs are no different and even though the general awareness around the importance of social media is there there are challenges when it comes to strategizing and executing.

Despite the high regard for social media, Indian CMOs feel more unprepared than CMOs anywhere else. This is unexpected because at any marketing forum, we talk about social media all the time

Lack of control is suggested as one of the reason why Indian CMOs have inhibitions with respect to social media. Come to think of it, its not surprising given how brand communication is a closely guarded activity in enterprises. The unpreparedness of CMOs could be due to this very face of communication wherein the communication is no more controlled and the company has to be open to retaliation on social media.

Social Media Is A Key Agent Of Change For Indian CMOs

As is visible from the chart, majority of CMOs are wary of the change being bought about by Social media and they find themselves unprepared. Data explosion is another key challenge which to a certain extent is a byproduct of social media. Using social media as a key engagement channel is a priority for most CXOs followed by monitoring the brand activity on social platforms.

The coverage by Business Standard has many more details on the changing marketing paradigm and CMO perceptions of Social Media including the increasing use of technology and access to more data for deriving a better ROI from marketing spends.

However, it is evident that social media is expected to remain a cause of concern for Indian CMOs and those who continue to take social media as just another channel for traditional marketing are not likely to succeed.

Do you agree that Indian CMOs at large are unprepared when it comes to leveraging social media in the enterprise?