Survey Sez 12/13/12

Juniper Research forecasts more than 1 billion users of over-the-top (OTT) mobile VoIP services by 2017 due to improvements in network technology, increased competition and the move by telcos to join the OTT space. As with Skype on the desktop, only a small proportion of subscribers will pay for the service, it adds, but leading mobile VoIP players are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their service offerings and are developing more ways to monetize their services through advertising and premium services. In other OTT research, Multimedia Research Group Inc. (MRG) notes growth of OTT video services is attracting attention to consumer-electronics products that can support streaming-media services efficiently. For example, the streaming media player has enjoyed “significant growth” during the past two years, it says, predicting total unit shipments will top 8.3 million this year. Apple TV remains the leading streaming media player product on the market, accounting for more than 40 percent of all global product shipments in 2011…The global mobile advertising market will generate $12.8 billion in 2013, up from $8 billion this year, according to Informa Telecoms & Media, but brands and advertisers continue to spend much less on mobile compared with the amount they spend on PC/desktop, TV, print and radio. Revenues from display ads on mobile sites and mobile search will account for the largest share of mobile ad revenues in 2013 but advertising in mobile apps will see stronger growth as many ad-networks now are seeing greater revenues being generated via in-app advertising, the group notes. “Mobile operators can only expect a very small share of revenues from mobile Internet advertising but they will continue to take a large share of revenues from messaging and voice-based mobile ad campaigns,” a new report says. “Messaging and voice will continue to play an important role in mobile advertising as many Internet-based campaigns also rely on SMS short codes or a click-to-call function for consumer response”…According to Ovum, traditional network architectures are struggling to keep pace as applications and services become more dynamic. The three-tier hierarchy (access, aggregation, and core) of network architecture is going away in favor of flatter architectures, virtualized application software is replacing network appliances, and network infrastructure is becoming more programmable. “Software defined networking (SDN) has already had a major impact on the communications industry by providing a focal point for a revitalized interest in networking,” comments David Krozier, principal analyst/Network Infrastructure. “SDN provides an opportunity to completely reexamine network architectures, introduce virtualization and provide truly innovative solutions.” With SDN, the focus of networking has moved from the feeds and speeds of the data plane to the intelligence inherent in the control plane and related network services, he adds. Instead of crafting applications to operate within the constraints of the network, with SDN the network will dynamically adapt to provide the connectivity services that best serve the application.