Strategy Analytics has been designing and analysing large scale consumer surveys for many years. Some of this work has been used by our industry analysts to support their regular market and competition tracking. We have also conducted frequent consumer surveys to support proprietary project and consulting activities.

Recognising that every client has its own particular set of interests, questions and perspectives, we have now opened up some of the results of these surveys to our client base via a powerful new web-based interface and analysis tool. The ConsumerMetrix service collates the results of three years’ worth of survey results, comprising more than 15000 online consumer interviews and offering millions of unique datapoints. Survey results are easily selected and instantly available according to the needs of the individual user, and can be downloaded in Excel and Powerpoint format for incorporation into customers’ own reports.

ConsumerMetrix surveys cover the US, France, Germany, Italy and the UK. Additional international market coverage, including Canada, Spain, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, the Nordic region, Poland, Hungary, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia, is available at the request of subscribers.

Subscribers can use ConsumerMetrix to assess survey data about the world’s leading technology and service provider brands and who their current and potential customers are.

ConsumerMetrix: Major Technology Brands

Acer, Apple, Asus, Compaq, Dell, Emachines, Facebook, Gateway, Grundig, HP, HTC, JVC, LG, LinkedIn, Motorola, MySpace, Nokia, Packard Bell, Panasonic, Philips, RIM/Blackberry, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony, SonyEricsson, Toshiba, Twitter, Vizio, Youtube

ConsumerMetrix: Major Service Provider Brands

3, AT&T/Bell South/Cingular, Bouyges Telecom, BT, Comcast, DirecTV, Dish, E-Plus, Free, Kabel Deutschland, Mediaset PremiumNeuf Cegetel, O2, Orange, SFR, Sky, Sprint/Nextel, TalkTalk, Telecom Italia, T-Home, TIM, Time Warner Cable, T-Mobile, United Internet, Verizon/Alltel, Virgin Media, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone/Arcor, WIND

 

ConsumerMetrix is designed to answer key tactical, consumer-facing questions like:

·         How many people plan to buy an Xbox 360 or PS3 during the next 12 months?

·         How do nations vary in usage of digital video recorders?

·         How do the profiles of Samsung and Sony customers compare?

·         Which television service providers have the highest satisfaction ratings?

·         Which brands are people most likely to choose when they next purchase a TV, PC or mobile phone?

·         How do the demographics of Apple v. PC owners compare?

·         How many people are using the major OTT video services and which devices are they watching them on?

·         How much do consumers expect to pay for iPads or other tablets?

·         How useful do consumers find TV mobile phone apps?

·         Which consumers are using multiscreen TV?

·         How many Sky Digital customers plan to drop the service during the coming 12 months?

 

ConsumerMetrix covers a wide range of themes and technologies related to the digital consumer, television, video and media sectors. The outline is presented below:

 

ConsumerMetrix Survey Themes

ConsumerMetrix Product Segmentation

•          Attitudes to payment and finance •          Household device ownership •          Personal device usage •          Device purchase intentions •          Device price expectations •          Brand ownership •          Brand purchase intentions and preferences •          Service provider customers •          TV, Fixed Broadband, Mobile Broadband, Mobile phone, Home phone •          Broadband and television access technologies •          Television service fees and satisfaction •          Managed home services •          3D television and video •          Advanced television services and features: availability, usage, perceived value and interest •          Television service: propensity to churn •          Future television concepts •          Online television and video services and applications •          Connected video device usage •          Social networking users and brands

•          Consumer Devices: Connected TV, HDTV, 3DTV, LCD/plasma TV, Blu-ray, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PS Vita, Home cinema, Home computer (desktop, portable, PC, Mac), Handheld games (PSP, Nintendo), Digital TV set-top box, Apple TV, Connected TV boxes, mobile phone, iPhone, smartphone, iPad, tablet, broadband WiFi router, Internet radio, camcorder, e-reader, home monitoring camera, iPod, personal audio player •          Broadband/TV Access Technologies: Cable, xDSL, Fiber, WiMax, Mobile data card/dongle, satellite, terrestrial broadcast, IPTV •          Advanced TV Features (selected examples): VOD, Pause/rewind live TV, Series recording, Mobile phone app, caller ID, whole home DVR, internet access •          Online TV device usage: TV/PC, TV/console, TV/media server, TV/Blu-ray, TV/digital media player, Connected TV, PC, Tablet, Smartphone

 

We are excited by the strong interest already shown in this service, which we believe is unique in many respects. Please email digitalconsumer@strategyanalytics.com for further details and a personal demonstration.

David Mercer

We don’t do this very often folks, but as a seasonal gift we have made our 2011 Digital Home Predictions report available to everyone, whether a Strategy Analytics client or not. You can download the full report here. A lot of the talk at the moment is about Google’s troubles with its TV offer: there will be little to see at CES after all, much to the annoyance of Google’s many partners no doubt. But this setback should not be seen as a a sign of general malaise in the connected TV industry: Apple has just reported that its TV solution is finally gaining some traction, and we expect continued progress from other key players in the rollout of internet TV to the big screen during 2011. We may even see Facebook moving into this space. Headline number of the year will be tablet revenues, which we predict will exceed netbooks. We also think Apple needs to revamp iTunes to take account of the connected device era, and Nintendo may have to take the plunge and launch the successor to the Wii. We’ll see further innovations in the TV control arena, with touchscreens, phone apps and motion control all featuring more widely. But 3DTV is likely to see only slow progress: sure, people will be buying 3D-enabled sets, but less than 20% will be watching 3D content on them. And one more stat to whet your appetite: more than one billion people worldwide will be using social networks for the first time during 2011. And since you are one of them, please go ahead and read the full report, and any comments and feedback are always appreciated. Best wishes for a peaceful holiday season. David Mercer Client Reading: Profiling the Connected Media Consumer - UK

Armour Group, the UK consumer electronics company, was demonstrating its Tip and Tilt Internet Radio at NAB, having introduced it earlier this year at CES. The product features a neat and simple cube design, wifi connectivity, runs on a rechargeable lithium ion battery, and will be available in a range of bright colours when it launches this summer. It can be programmed from a PC to play any four internet radio stations, and these are selected by moving the cube around four of its sides. The remaining two sides – top and bottom – are used to tilt the volume up or down. The device will retail at $99 and £70 and is aimed at expanding the market for internet radio to less technophile segments. Armour was hoping to catch the eye of broadcasters, not just with the Tip and Tilt’s innovative design, but with its potential to lock listeners in to particular radio stations, which the software allows. Broadcasters might be persuaded to subsidise the device if it could only be used to listen to their stations, locking out competitors and increasing their share of the advertising pie. There are several difficulties with this argument. In particular, there must be doubts whether radio listeners would be happy to be prevented from selecting any station they choose. The counter-argument is that restricted content access, a model familiar to other sectors, such as games consoles and pay TV. Our feeling is that if a major station group, such as Global Radio in the UK, subsidised the device to such an extent that it became very low cost, or even free, demand could be sizeable. But the economics would be challenging, even if the broadcast industry was not recovering from a deep advertising recession. We suspect that in high volume the device could be manufactured for $30-40. But a major broadcaster might buy, say, 100,000 units at a cost of $3-4m, and that is not a trivial investment for an industry struggling in challenging times. And would that type of volume really make much impact on advertising ratings? Given Global Radio’s weekly reach, as an example, of more than 18 million listeners, it seems rather doubtful. So we conclude that the Tip and Tilt will likely need to focus on the retail opportunity, and it may find many willing buyers at its low price point. Internet radio is something which has been waiting to break out of its PC prison for many years and this sort of innovation is what is needed to help accelerate that trend. David Mercer Client Reading: Global Audiovisual Market Forecast