According to a study by Strategy Analytics, The video game market worldwide has grown by over 50% in the period 2005-2010 thanks to the popularity of console games like the Wii and PS3. However, it is believed that Wii has already peaked in sales and will decline post 2011. This makes PS3 the most likely contender to be the leading game console in the long run with Xbox likely to follow second. The lifetime sale of Wii is expected to be 103 million units while that for PS3 is forecast to be 127 million units.

Global video game software market
2005 : $30.3 billion
2009 : $46.5 billion
2010 : $47.5 billion (estd.)

How are email marketers supposed to be segmenting their audience? Is segmentation necessary at all? A recent study by GetResponse looked into what the popular perceptions were among Email marketers and ranked the popular segmentation techniques among these online marketers

1. Interest based preferences
2. Recent Open or click activity
3. Demographics
4. Purchasing history
5. Subscription date

Interestingly 8.5% of the email marketers did not find audience segmentation useful.

A recent survey conducted by EmailStatCenter concluded that close to half of the email marketers earned over $70,000 annually. It also appeared that in-house email marketers who managed larger budgets earned much more than those working in the agencies. Here is a breakup of the various salary brackets

< $49,000 : 22%
$50,000 - $69,999 : 25%
$70,000 - $99,999 : 26%
$100,000 - $149,999 : 18%
$150,000 - $199,999 : 5%
> $200,000 : 4%

The Apple App Store has come a long way since opening up for iPhone users in 2008. Since then, other marketplaces like Android’s have also been fast playing catch up and it comes as no doubt that smartphone app marketplace is one of the hottest areas in the coming years. A study by Research2Guidance notes that this “industry” can reach $15 billlion by 2013. Here is the projection of the installed user base provided by the study

2009 : 100 million
2010 : 310 million
2011 : 550 million
2012 : 775 million
2013 : 970 million

In the past one year, the number of users accessing Facebook from their smartphone mobile browser has jumped 112%. The corresponding number for Twitter is 347%. This is interesting because this does not include the number of users accessing these social networks via mobile apps that is pretty ubiquitous on smartphones today. Also, the difference in socialk network access via mobile browser differs widely between smartphone users and feature phone users. Here are the related stats according to a study by Comscore

Percent users accessing social networks via mobile browser
Smartphones : 30.8%
Feature phone : 6.8%

Number of such users in Jan ‘10
Facebook : 25.13 million
MySpace : 11.44 million
Twitter : 4.7 million

Data ARPU among American mobile network service providers is steadily on the rise since 2004 and the corresponding number for voice has been falling. In a study of the network performance in the last quarter of 2009, Wireless Intelligence has found that ARPU has overall declined thanks to users spreading their spending across multiple connections. Here are the numbers gathered for the top US network carriers

AT&T : $50.69
Cincinnati Bell : $43.89
Leap Wireless : $38.66
MetroPCS : $40.70
nTelos Wireless : $51.48
Sprint : $49.26
T-Mobile : $46.00
US Cellular : $53.55
Verizon Wireless : $50.23

Overall ARPU for Q4 ‘09 : $49.31 (down from $50.61 in Q3 ‘09)

Men are more likely than women to be active on multiple social networks. A recent study by Liberty Mutual found that other than Facebook, most men were also actively involved in other social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace; at a number higher than women.

Here are some statistics

Active on more than one social network : 57% Men vs. 50% Women

Facebook users who are also part of
MySpace : 35% Men vs. 26% Women
LinkedIn : 25% Men vs. 16% Women
Twitter : 53% Men vs. 38% Women

How big is Facebook? With nearly 400 million members on board, the company is a pretty big subset of the internet. With such a massive audience, the revenues from behavioral targeting, social gaming, partnerships can bring a lot of revenues. According to a study by Inside Facebook, the social network could have well made over $600 million in 2009 and can make close to $1.1 billion in 2010.

Estimates for 2009
Brand advertising : $225 million
Microsoft ads : $50 million
Virtual goods (Credits) : $10 million
Performance advertising : $350 million

Thanks to the terrific growth in number of subscribers, mobile network service providers from the emerging economies are among the fastest growing companies. According to a recent study by TeleGeography, three companies have doubled their revenues in the past three years and all of them happen to be from the developing world. Here are the list of countries ranked by growth.

> 100% growth
1. MTN
2. Bharti
3. Zain

45%- 100% growth
4. AT&T
5. America Movil
6. China Mobile
7. Vodafone

0%-40% growth
8. Sistema
9. SingTel
10. Verizon
11. Carso
12. Telefonica
13. Deutche Telekom
14. BT

Negative growth
France Telecom
NTT

The average revenue per user (ARPU) on voice has been steadily falling as the data usage has been on the rise. According to a study by Chetan Sharma Consulting, Voice ARPU among American network operators has fallen by close to $15 between 2004 and 2009. On the other hand, data ARPU has increased by nearly $11. While the overall ARPU has definitely fallen, the increase in number of subscribers has meant that the revenues are on an upward trend.

Here are the ARPUs recorded

Voice ARPU
Q4 ‘04 : $50
Q4 ‘05 : $47
Q4 ‘06 : $44
Q4 ‘07 : $41
Q4 ‘08 : $37
Q4 ‘09 : $35

Data ARPU
Q4 ‘04 : $4.00
Q4 ‘05 : $5.50
Q4 ‘06 : $8.00
Q4 ‘07 : $10.50
Q4 ‘08 : $13.00
Q4 ‘09 : $15