Philippines Contributes to $962 Million Worth of Tablets Sales in Southeast Asia

There's a consistent craze for tablets in Southeast Asia and Philippines is one of the developing economies that contributed to the whooping $962 million worth of tablets sales, with android being the favorite operating system in the region according to Gfk Asia based on their 12-month span survey conducted on 2011.

That is equivalent to 1.6 million of tablet units sold in SEA alone wherein a strong 97 percent of sales in the fourth quarter has been recorded in Indonesia, the fourth world's most populous country. However, the computed total sales in Southeast Asia revealed that it was Malaysia that has the biggest market setting a total revenue of $374 million. Indonesia ended the year with a total sale of $284 million.

Five out of six in the surveyed countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam showed that there's an expansion of market over each previous quarter, with Indonesia sought to have an almost twofold unit sales growth in Q4.

Gerard Tan, Account Director for Digital Technology at GfK Asia said:

"Tablet sales, which started off on a slower note at the beginning of the year has definitely taken off in this part of the world, as reflected by the exponential growth within the year.."

"..In Indonesia, several key manufacturers were successful in stepping up their marketing and distribution efforts nearing the end of last year, as evident in the steep sales surge in the last quarter."

Gfk Asia findings also revealed that android is the most preferred platform since it is being offered in a much lower price at just around $531 compared to other platforms that is being offered 30 percent higher at $676. Android tablets sales performed well showing a progressive growth where 2 out of 3 tablets sales are android.

"Due to the open source nature of the Android OS, tablets running on this system are generally priced lower than those running on other OS and its greater affordability encourages mass consumer adoption which in turn accelerates further development of its ecosystem.” explained Mr. Tan.

Further, different mobile manufacturers that are implementing android OS in their hardware have also contributed to the gradually increasing expansion of the adoption of the OS, Mr Tan said.

Source

Who Are The Most Active Social Networkers?

The picture you've just seen above already gives you hint to answer the title of this article. That's right! Women are nonetheless the most active social networkers as of today!

On a latest study reported, females ages 18-34 years old are the most engaged in social networking and which make up the majority of visitors to social networks and blogs. Aged 35-49 are also avid visitors: 4 percent are more likely than average to visit social networks and blogs than they do in any other site and 27 percent of these sites’ audience. The next paragraphs will get you into details about them.

Related: The Rise Of Mobile Social Media Use

These women are likely came from New England as the report suggests, with an average of 102 unique women who visit social networking sites and blogs. Not so far behind are women from South Atlantic and East South Central both has the same figure of average of 101 visitors who are also active in social networking. Women from Pacific and both of East and West North Central though are the third visitors likely to land on the sites mentioned.

As mentioned earlier, these active women who engage a lot in social networking are between ages 18-34 years old which has an average of 108 visitors. They are educated,  highly reputable women as the study indicates that these women has attained a bachelor's degree or even post graduate degree. There is no report on what particular field these women are into but I would like to think that they are involved in either SEO, content management, technical support or BPO or even testers. 

In terms of ethnicity, Asian/Pacific Islander women are the most active social networkers. About 103 in average of social networking and blog sites visitors are Asian while an average of 102 are either American Indian or Alaska Native. White and Hispanic women are also active with an average of 101 and 100 unique visitors respectively.

Indeed, women conquers social networking! To show this, here is a picture showing how women are active and even influential to both men and women online. Britney Spears is the most circled people in Google+ only followed by four other powerful and popular men despite the fact that the current percentage of gender who use Google+ is 69.0% men and 29.8% women.

The Rise Of Mobile Social Media Use

Year 2011 has been dominating for smartphones and tablets. In fact, more than half of all mobile phone sales are occupied by smartphones already. It is the year where consumers sought and realized that the use of these devices can bring yet another effective and convenient way of computing.

Powerful mobile OS (Operating Systems), highly interactive and useful applications, increased phone memory and the ever-powered storage over the cloud which allowed users flexibility to access files wherever, whenever! These are only among of a hundred reasons why smartphones and tablets are overtaking feature phones.

Related: Top Social Networking And Blogging Sites Of 2011

MOBILE SOCIAL MEDIA USE IS ON THE RISE

Whether it is a feature phone or a smartphone, the ability to access social media is a commonly used feature among mobile owners. About 43 percent of users access the web through mobile device such as mobile phones, iPad, e-reader and handheld music player. In the figure below, the 97 percent for computer use only suggests that still, computer is the most convenient way to use and access social media contents.

How do consumers access social media (Source:Nielsen)

SMARTPHONE FEATURES AND HOW USERS HAVE VALUED THEM

With wide capability ranging from the basics of making and receiving calls to checking out different places nearby down to mobile payment transactions and updating social status and news feeds plus the practicality of use over other devices, smartphones continue to be the most preferred gadget. The next figure below lists down the features commonly available in a smartphone device and how these features have valued by users.

While downloading and playing music is the most available feature for smartphones and global positioning system (GPS) is the most valued feature, applications for social networking has been the second available and most valued feature.

How does social networking compare to other features consumers have on
their phones? And what features do they value most?

MOST USED APPS FOR SMARTPHONE USERS

The on-the-rise popularity of smartphones and tablets which allow users install a wide variety of applications also made it possible for mobile social networking apps to be the third most downloaded app and used by smartphone owners. The most popular app for social networking across all operating system is Facebook  while Twitter is the number five most used app on Blackberry and Windows mobile operating systems.

Gaming apps (the most popular of which include Angry birds, Fruit Ninja and Tiny Tower) are still the most downloaded and used applications for smartphones While Weather applications are also highly in demand. Other categories for the most downloaded and used applications by smartphones users include music (Google Music is the most popular) , news, entertainment, banking/finance and dining/restaurant.

Top 10 Categories of Apps Used by Smartphones Owners Who Downloaded Apps

USERS WHO ENGAGED IN MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING

As teeny as thirteen (13) and eldest as fifty five and over (55+) years of age have installed apps for mobile social networking. The most highly downloaded app of which is Facebook followed by twitter with LinkedIn, a site preferrable for professionals, as the least most downloaded app. Ages twenty five to thirty four (25 - 34) have the highest percentage of social networking app users.

Percentage of Social Networking App Users by Age