comScore data shows smartphone situation in Europe

"Of the five biggest EU countries, Italy has the highest smartphone penetration rate at 32%, followed by Italy on 28.3%..."

Fix that.

Thank you - fixed. Should have been Spain obviously.

Rafe, the Comscore statistics are interesting, but when you get to the 'Developers take note' section, you miss the point again, at least when it comes to applications.

Developers aren't going for the largest numbers of users per se; of course, that would be Symbian users in, say, India or Asia.

What application developers care about are users who are willing to actually buy applications for a platform----on a recurring basis. It's why they're so U.S. and U.K. focused. It's also why developers are flocking to the iPad. Its percentage of users will be in the single digits, initially, but they're also in a higher income strata and more willing to pay for multiple applications, repeatedly.

There appears to be a correlation between high end phones and iPhones.
For example, in the article you state that in the UK the break down between mid/low tier smartphones and high end phones is 62% / 35%. The percentage of iPhones in the UK is 20.5%, while RIM accounts for 18.7%. This leaves no room for Symbian at the high end.

I believe this is a central factor in Ovi's failure and unlike you I believe this is a reason not to develop for Symbian at present. Consumers with a lower disposable income (and consequently a lower tariff) are much less likely to purchase apps. RIM users are a different demographic (business users) to consumers who purchase the iPhone. Off course there are other factors in Ovi failure such as the poor user experience, poor Symbian UI experience etc. However, at the end of the day disposable income of customers will always play a large part in any market, including an apps market.

How is the Ovi Store a failure? 1.5m downloads a day is a clear enough indication that its not (no, its not a resounding success but it it is NOT a failure either). And before you say "most of its free" - so is most/a lot of the content in other stores. And before you say "yeah but its themes and ring tones that people download and pay for" - SO WHAT? They are exceedingly cheap to develop and can create a lot of revenue. Bottom line is the bottom line.

Sorry for being simplistic - I usally tend to avoid that.

You don't see a difference between downloading ring tones and wall papers with paying for and downloading applications and games (which affects what platform receive developers' attention)?

Okay, then...

The fact is, as said before, that application developers are chasing audiences with a higher potential for monetization.

Jimmy1 wrote:What application developers care about are users who are willing to actually buy applications for a platform----on a recurring basis. It's why they're so U.S. and U.K. focused. It's also why developers are flocking to the iPad. Its percentage of users will be in the single digits, initially, but they're also in a higher income strata and more willing to pay for multiple applications, repeatedly.

As you'll note in the section concerned I did make a note of that (distribution and a willingness to download). You would need more data to bring out anything more meaningful, but the usage stats do suggest that in Symbian dominated Italy the app usage is the highest in Europe. However as I said in the story you defintely do need to take a willing to buy into account and balance that against addressable market.

I'd be careful of drawing linked conclusions like expensive phone = willing to buy apps. After all there are more Technology Leaders (as a proportion of the total population) in Nigeria than anywhere else.

Simaraly with iPad / iPhone i'd be wary of drawing conclusion on limited data. Yes there sucess stories, but there are plenty of reports showing the majority app makes little or no money.

Unregistered wrote:There appears to be a correlation between high end phones and iPhones.
For example, in the article you state that in the UK the break down between mid/low tier smartphones and high end phones is 62% / 35%. The percentage of iPhones in the UK is 20.5%, while RIM accounts for 18.7%. This leaves no room for Symbian at the high end.

Probably worth bearing in mind that in the UK its very possible to get an iPhone on a �25 tarriff (especially if you go 3G). There's also the ones through tesco Mobile and PAYG. No idea what the balance is though. I imagine this applies elsewhere too.

I believe this is a central factor in Ovi's failure and unlike you I believe this is a reason not to develop for Symbian at present. Consumers with a lower disposable income (and consequently a lower tariff) are much less likely to purchase apps. RIM users are a different demographic (business users) to consumers who purchase the iPhone. Off course there are other factors in Ovi failure such as the poor user experience, poor Symbian UI experience etc. However, at the end of the day disposable income of customers will always play a large part in any market, including an apps market.

Do you have any meaningful data to back that up? Why does it have to be on a high end device? Yes mid and low tier users *may* uses devices differently, and, even if there is, that doesn't mean there's no business case to sell to them.

Similarly Nokia has demonstrated the potential of emerging markets sales, and service like Mobile Learn, Lifetools, Ovi Mail etc.

Calling Ovi a failure without any context is meaningless. Ovi Maps free navigation, Ovi Store downloads, Nokia Messaging operator deals etc etc. I suspect you mean a failure from your point of view, which is of course entirely up to you. As noted above lower disposable incomes do not necessairly equals lower contracts (some people choose the mobile as their luxary).

I do agree RIM phone users are a different demographic, but again would be wary of segmenting exclusively (the old chesnut of business users become hom user in the evening applies). I think the cross over appeal of Eseries device here says a lot too. Same for Blackberrys having consumer appeal because of BIM.

Unregistered, of course there is a difference. But revenue is revenue. You don't see that? Okay then.. You might want to read e.g. some of Tomi Ahonen's analysis where the revenue opportunities are. For each successful developer/profitable app there are at least one if not more miserable failures (from a business point of view) in most if not all App Stores/platforms.

On the expensive phone = willing/able to buy apps I would agree with Rafe - it's probably a fair bit more complicated than that. Even discounting for ring tones/themes and high population numbers etc. how else would the Ovi Store success countries include countries like India, Indonesia, Russia?

It's almost impossible to make money on the iPhone as an independent developer by coming up with an app idea and selling it through the app store. A few get lucky when something catches on, it's like winning a lottery - the odds are against you.

It's quite easy to shift a lot of downloads through the app store if you create an app for or on behalf of an existing big brand (any mainstream brand, not software/computing).

It's easier to make money on a new Symbian app, and they have more possibilities in terms of legitimate outlets. The Ovi store is not necessarily the benefit it should be but it's an option.

Two quick points.

1. In the graph showing what a smartphone is used for texting was top but I did not see 'making calls' as an option.

2. In the pie chart for brands in the UK; the iphone and Rim (blackberry) have a good share each and that is because they are a brand that you either want or don't want and neither of them have any real competition.

Nokia does not have the brand image of either the Blackberry nor the i phone. Nokia make phones and lots of them.

I have the 83 gram 112 x 46 x 12 mm Nokia 5630 XpressMusic. Is that a smartphone? Yes. But I bet most of the people who bought it don't even know it's a smartphone.

Nokia has a large share of the smarephone market because they sell small handsets with s 60 built in, which have been purchased because of their size and form factor rather than because of their smartphone status. Even this site has little time for them.

What Nokia should do is drop the Numbers on it flag ship handsets and think of a catchy name and a reason why their handset is better. Jumping on the apps or the music download or the blackberry bandwaggon is not the the right way to go.

moonshot wrote:
I have the 83 gram 112 x 46 x 12 mm Nokia 5630 XpressMusic. Is that a smartphone? Yes. But I bet most of the people who bought it don't even know it's a smartphone.

.

Most of the people who are buying the 5x30 Symbian phones appear to be teenagers and parents buying them for school age children. They are bought with PAYG including data (such as T-Mobile/CPW promotion) and people in this age group tend to be well aware of what their technology is capable of, their first concern always seems to be the Facebook capability.

At least that's the pattern in the Mobile Phone shop that I manage.

Half of Nokia's smartphone sales were N or E series last year. The idea that Nokia only smell 'cheap smartphones to kids' is ludicrous.

Unregistered wrote:Most of the people who are buying the 5x30 Symbian phones appear to be teenagers and parents buying them for school age children. They are bought with PAYG including data (such as T-Mobile/CPW promotion) and people in this age group tend to be well aware of what their technology is capable of, their first concern always seems to be the Facebook capability.

At least that's the pattern in the Mobile Phone shop that I manage.

Most people are not aware that the latest Nokia candy bar handset is a smartphone. If they did they would run a mile at the word smartphone.

Nokia is putting the s60 platform into more of their handsets precisely for that reason; to introduce people to symbian with them knowing and to boost the sale of symbian phones.

The new c5 is a good example

moonshot wrote:Most people are not aware that the latest Nokia candy bar handset is a smartphone. If they did they would run a mile at the word smartphone.

Nokia is putting the s60 platform into more of their handsets precisely for that reason; to introduce people to symbian with them knowing and to boost the sale of symbian phones.

The new c5 is a good example

Nope. Cheap Nokia handsets with Symbian on are to get people in at entry level and try and retain them later with brand loyalty on the more advanced phones (that haven't appeared on the market yet but will be nicely timed to catch these people moving up from the cheapo phones on sale today).

Mr Mark wrote:Half of Nokia's smartphone sales were N or E series last year. The idea that Nokia only smell 'cheap smartphones to kids' is ludicrous.

Nobody suggested that Nokia only smell(sic) 'cheap smartphones to kids.

The really low cost Symbian phones, 5230, 5530, 5630 only got the really serious price cuts THIS year. These are the price cuts that moved them down into the reach of the teenage/schoolkids.

The carriers of the USA are the ones to blame when it comes to why Nokia went from market domination in the early 90's here, to nothing. Although you could blame Nokia for not "playing the game with them" like Sammy and LG have. They're worried about their brand being diluted by the carriers destruction of handsets. Hell, the brand is being diluted anyway as we speak, because all you find are cheap to barely midrange phones from them right now. Nobody knows Nokia is a phone powerhouse.

Maybe with the introduction of the 5230 aka Nuron, things will start turning around. It's good to see Nokia release something that wasn't kicked down a few notches (I'm looking at you E71x).

Most of you are missing the point in here. Because of the novelty of the app stores, there isn�t any solid trend yet. But as with any mass accessible online store, most income will come from kids, purchasing music, games or any entertainment app. Problem right now is that smartphones haven�t widely reached them right now, but once they do, we will have a peak in the development of cheap and simple games and applications, which will be purchased as crazy. Just the way it happened with ringtones and games few years ago.

Problem with RIM is, that they are so business orientated that most companies right now develop their own applications, blocking or asking employees not to download any other 3rd party application, therefore limiting potential consumers.

Iphone is a trend, and as such, most users buy them just because is the iphone, knowing nothing about what a smartphone is. Most of you will say that apple app store is one of the most successful out there, if not the. But question is, has it reached its peak? Will it keep on growing, or will it start losing some ground with the introduction of Android, Windows 7 phones, and the strong market that Symbian has outside US, reinforced with OVI?

Nokia dominated the market in the 90�s with great phones at affordable prices. And with Nokia being the only company offering smartphones in the low-mid range, is very likely that they will absolutely dominate the market once again, hence making OVI stores one of the most attractive app stores out there.

Bottom line is, you want the market with the most consumers available, if they are high, mid, or low income segment, will determine the product you are offering, nothing more. Who makes the biggest profit?? Lamborghini selling 20 top notch cars a month? or Volkswagen selling 1,000 cheap cars a day in Brazil?

Unregistered wrote:Most of you are missing the point in here. Because of the novelty of the app stores, there isn�t any solid trend yet. But as with any mass accessible online store, most income will come from kids, purchasing music, games or any entertainment app. Problem right now is that smartphones haven�t widely reached them right now, but once they do, we will have a peak in the development of cheap and simple games and applications, which will be purchased as crazy. Just the way it happened with ringtones and games few years ago.

Problem with RIM is, that they are so business orientated that most companies right now develop their own applications, blocking or asking employees not to download any other 3rd party application, therefore limiting potential consumers.

Lets put the first paragraph to the test then, your suggestion that app store income is kids purchasing music, games and entertainment.

Into app store, and choose to filter by "top grossing" apps:

1. The Simpson Arcade (on promotion, 80% off today)
2. Copilot Live navigation
3. TomTom Western Europe
4. TomTom UK and Ireland
5. Angry Birds.

So three of the top five are are not entertainment apps.

The second point, Blackberry. Anyone who thinks this is pure business phone is out of date. Seriously popular with the kids and students. The Curve was designed for this market (it's much cheaper than Bold or Storm) and is the cool device for the young at the moment.

Unregistered wrote:Nope. Cheap Nokia handsets with Symbian on are to get people in at entry level and try and retain them later with brand loyalty on the more advanced phones (that haven't appeared on the market yet but will be nicely timed to catch these people moving up from the cheapo phones on sale today).

They are not cheap, they are normal price phones. You are confusing them with the vastly over price, rip the public off phones like the n97's

Unregistered wrote:
The really low cost Symbian phones, 5230, 5530, 5630 only got the really serious price cuts THIS year. These are the price cuts that moved them down into the reach of the teenage/schoolkids.

Since when do schoolkids buy their own phones?

moonshot wrote:They are not cheap, they are normal price phones. You are confusing them with the vastly over price, rip the public off phones like the n97's

Since when do schoolkids buy their own phones?

Since there have been phones for sale.

And they are cheap. Loads of kids have Blackberry Curves, and these phones are half the price of Blackberry Curves.

Unregistered wrote:Lets put the first paragraph to the test then, your suggestion that app store income is kids purchasing music, games and entertainment.

Into app store, and choose to filter by "top grossing" apps:

1. The Simpson Arcade (on promotion, 80% off today)
2. Copilot Live navigation
3. TomTom Western Europe
4. TomTom UK and Ireland
5. Angry Birds.

So three of the top five are are not entertainment apps.

The second point, Blackberry. Anyone who thinks this is pure business phone is out of date. Seriously popular with the kids and students. The Curve was designed for this market (it's much cheaper than Bold or Storm) and is the cool device for the young at the moment.

Just like I said it before, it is due to the novelty of the technology. Do you buy more than once a GPS navigation software?? Will you buy it in a few months with more and more free gps navigation software??? Once smartphones start to reach kids, there will be a complete shift. btw, did you read the news when Nokia announced ovi maps as a free service??? Tomtom and Garmin had a drop of about 20% in shares due to announcement.

Regarding Blackberry its true that it's not fully business orientated, but that is their main objective, with some (and random) attempts to reach some other users, while symbian has been the OS of choice for millions and millions of people outside the US. The most profitable app store will be the one which reaches the most users. Obviously talking in gross income, because there will be some sectors where profits will be higher in some other app store.

In the end, everything will translate to a huge competition, which will be very beneficial for us all. Everyone will use the phone which fits him better.

Unregistered wrote:Just like I said it before, it is due to the novelty of the technology. Do you buy more than once a GPS navigation software?? Will you buy it in a few months with more and more free gps navigation software??? Once smartphones start to reach kids, there will be a complete shift. btw, did you read the news when Nokia announced ovi maps as a free service??? Tomtom and Garmin had a drop of about 20% in shares due to announcement.

Regarding Blackberry its true that it's not fully business orientated, but that is their main objective, with some (and random) attempts to reach some other users, while symbian has been the OS of choice for millions and millions of people outside the US. The most profitable app store will be the one which reaches the most users. Obviously talking in gross income, because there will be some sectors where profits will be higher in some other app store.

In the end, everything will translate to a huge competition, which will be very beneficial for us all. Everyone will use the phone which fits him better.

Garmin dropped 20%? They are currently trading on NASDAQ at 38, and they haven't been below 32 all year. Their 12 month peak was in March (26th March 2010). The announcement about Nokia maps was about Jan 20, when garmin was at 33.5, it went down to about 31.9. and then continued climbing to its current higher level. The idiots that suggest that this is a problem for Garmin have no clue how small this consumer sat nav market is for Garmin, nobody is going to be using a Nokia to navigate aircraft and sea vessels.

TomTom who are more road nav oriented went from 6.6 to 5.2 on Amsterdam, and are now back to 6.3.

Blackberry are currently on a mission to develop their marketplace outside enterprise, check out the banner ads on this website.

Fact is, the top grossing apps are the ones that make use of a particular phone feature. If the new phones in the future have new features, the apps will appear to exploit them. The notion as you state "will you buy more than one..." can be applied to any platform, not just phones. In which case it doesn't hold water.

Aren't we missing the numbers? I would like to see the actual numbers instead of market penetration rates.

For instance, how does Europe stack up against the US in total numbers?

thusgaard - the numbers are included in the article. The EU5 have, collectievly 51.6 million smartphone subscribers, the US has 42.7 million.

If you add in other European countries that's obvisouly going to be more. So the European market as a whole is significantly bigger than the US in terms of smartphones.