Source: Digital Trends © 2013 Designtechnica Corporation. All rights reserved

Since the Ipsos MediaCT Technology Tracker started tracking the race between tablets and e-Readers in April 2011, it has been a neck and neck contest, with no clear winner in terms of levels of adoption. However, all that changed this Christmas, with one device now clearly dominating in terms of household ownership. Read more on Tablets outsprint e-Reader ownership…

(C) Netflix

This week House of Cards was made exclusively available on Netflix, the online subscription based video streaming service.  This bold move from a television aggregator that delivers content through a relatively low cost subscription model, to being a content producer (and one with deep pockets – House of Cards alone cost over $100 million to make), does have the potential to compete with both producers and distributors of broadcast content.

Netflix says it will be producing a minimum of five original series each year to entice audiences to subscribe to its service.  Potentially a game changer, Ted Sarandos, Netflix ‘s chief content officer, told GQ ‘The goal is for us to become HBO faster than HBO can become us’.

But does the research data support this move?

Read more on Can Netflix’s House of Cards survive its $100 million bet?…

Like many of my contemporaries, I’ve spent many happy hours browsing round HMV and leafing through CDs and DVDs and checking out new releases so I was saddened to hear that they’d called the administrators in this week.  However, it seems we only have ourselves to blame, as although many of us may browse in-store, more and more of us then go online and download or order a cheaper copy and as HMV has been lacking a coherent digital strategy we use a competitor more often than not. Read more on HMV – A casualty of the digital age?…

With the latest wave of Ipsos MORI’s Technology tracker comes something of a technology landmark to end 2012 with. Smartphone ownership rises above the 50% mark for the first time. Considering that in 2010 the figure stood at just 20% that is rather impressive.

This is of course the latest in a series of technology milestones in the 21 century. It started with mobile phone ownership reaching 50% in 2000 followed by internet access reaching the same level only a year later.  But this was the most impressive milestone in terms of internet access arguably came years later in 2006 when the majority of the population finally had broadband access. Read more on Reaching the milestone – Smartphone ownership rises above the 50% mark for the first time…

With only a month to go ’til Christmas our thoughts have started to turn to the inevitable and much dreaded annual questions; ‘What am I going to get people for a Christmas present?’ For the technophiles amongst us one of the big things we will probably consider is a 4G enabled phone now that EE has rolled out its 4G network. Read more on How much will mobile behaviour change with new superfast internet access?…

According to the nationally representative Ipsos MediaCT tech tracker, more than 1 in 10 of the population now has a tablet, ownership being largely driven by younger males.

The “living room” is the most used place highlighting the fact that this is a ‘shared family screen’, often to be used in conjunction with the main shared screen, the TV. Its influence seems so strong that some younger consumers are actually confused by the fact they can’t ‘swipe’ the TV to change content. Read more on Where do you use your tablet?…

London 2012, which kicks off this Friday, will arguably be the first Games where it will be possible to keep up to date on who’s winning and losing, and who’s on the podium, as it happens, without actually watching any of it – the first ‘social media’ games. If you’re following the right people on Twitter or specific pages on Facebook or Google+, you’ll be up to date on the action.

The volume of tweets is increasing all the time, and the continued sophistication of smartphones encourages broadcasting and connection on the move. At Ipsos MORI we know that nearly as many Twitter users are accessing the site on their mobile than on a more traditional device, such as a PC or laptop, in GB (65% vs. 68%) (Source: Ipsos MediaCT TechTracker). This isn’t altogether surprising. The key to Twitter is the spontaneity of it, the immediacy with which opinions can be shared. Smartphones fit this requirement perfectly.

Read more on Will Olympics Inspire a Social Generation?…

My daughter was only 2 when the iPhone arrived.

It’s something she has grown up with around her, and her first phone is bound to be a Smartphone. Predictive texting and keys with 3 letters are alien to her, yet a QWERTY touch-screen is just so intuitive. She asks to borrow my iPhone and all she asks nowadays is “Dad, what’s your iTunes password?” and “Dad, why can’t I watch this TV programme as we drive along?” She expects access everywhere and, with 4G coming, it shouldn’t be too long before she can.

Read more on The iPhone was 5 years old last week!…

The latest data from the IAB report (co-produced with PWC) says that advertising on mobile devices in 2011 reached a new high of £203.2M, a 157% increase on the previous year. When compared to estimates from The Advertising Association/Warc Expenditure Report, this expenditure is now greater than overall cinema spend (£182M). So what is the best way to engage with consumers via their mobile?

Read more on ‘Ad’ enough? What to consider when advertising to mobile shoppers…

TwiIt seems so natural to many people now, that it’s a hazy memory of a time when it wasn’t possible to catch up on the latest news stories or updates from celebrities on your mobile, in the same amount of time it takes to step off the tube, jump on the escalator and order a latte in the coffee shop next door. In the modern world people want information quickly and in an easily digestible format, and this helps to explain the growth in popularity of Twitter since its inception six years ago. Read more on Twitter at Six: Twitter goes mobile on its birthday…