Application service providers are gaining in both customers and customer satisfaction, according to a tracking survey released recently by the ASP Industry Consortium, which is an international group dedicated to promoting the ASP industry. The study, second in a quarterly series, was conducted by Zona Research Inc, and found that the main factors driving enterprises to move to the ASP model are cost savings, the ability to focus on business objectives and the speed of application implementation.
The survey sampled 131 managers and IT professionals and found that 63.4 per cent of them said their firms used ASPs, which was an increase from 52.4 per cent in the first quarter's survey. Ninety per cent of the respondents said they were happy with their service-level agreements (SLA), up from 81 per cent in the earlier survey and the most commonly recommended changes listed by those dissatisfied with their SLAs were greater guaranteed availability and better responsiveness to SLA violations.
Respondents listed the possibility that data security could be comprised as the most crucial problem that could arise from using an ASP. Just over 53 per cent of respondents said the average ASP response time to support calls was under an hour, up from 43.6 per cent in the first survey.
Australian e-tailers close in on US giantsOnline shopping sites have continued to grow steadily in recent months, despite the overall doom and gloom that has dogged the online industry, according to research by Red Sheriff. The company's surveys also found that Australia's leading online shopping pure plays -- dstore and wishlist -- surged ahead in July when they won an increasing share of Australian's online dollar spend. With growth in excess of 100 per cent for July, dstore closed the gap on Amazon from 56 per cent to a mere 16 per cent lead in unique visitor numbers. The growing strength of local e-tailers was also reflected in wishlist's July figures that increased by a staggering 109 per cent.
The strength of standardised global offerings is coming under increasing pressure from local online operators, Red Sheriff noted. This has been highlighted in the July results which found that nearly 20 per cent of Australians who visited Amazon, also visited dstore. A Red Sheriff spokesman said we are seeing an expansion in consumers online repertoire beyond the traditional dominant global brands. This is coupled with local e-tailers moving to improve international pricing competitiveness and broader range offerings.
Red Sheriff's July results also demonstrated that convenience is a major factor influencing the trend towards shoppers switching from bricks to clicks. The July survey found that an increasing number of shoppers were accessing the Net from work with a 50/50 split between home and workplace emerging. This compares with 47 per cent workplace access in June.
Memory shortages slow workstation sales
The worldwide branded Windows NT workstation market declined seven per cent in the second quarter of 2000, according to a recent study by market research company International Data Corp (IDC). In contrast, the Unix workstation market rose nearly three per cent in the same time period. Overall branded workstation shipments fell four per cent from the previous quarter with 409,123 units moved during the period.
With significant order backlogs for NT-based workstations, the second half of the year should show renewed shipment growth. IDC noted, however, that large memory shortages may slow vendors from getting the workstations out in the market on time.
The second quarter was difficult for most personal workstation vendors who struggled with RDRAM (Rambus dynamic random access memory) shortages while trying to meet customer demand. IDC noted that such component shortages will likely continue throughout the year.
While Dell Computer Corp. used an RDRAM-only strategy throughout the quarter, IDC said, the company managed to capture the number-one spot in worldwide shipments of branded Windows NT workstations. Dell held a 34 per cent market share globally and moved 93,000 units - an eight per cent rise over the previous quarter. Dell was the only vendor to post positive shipment growth in the NT workstation market.. The company also dominated the U.S market with a 43 per cent share.
Wireless Web Market set to jump
The size of the global market for small wireless Internet devices will grow from $US10 billion today to $US73 billion by 2005, according to a study conducted by US market research company Strategy Analytics. The growth will occur largely due to declining prices of the devices, which include handheld computers, wireless application protocol (WAP) phones, smart phones and next generation multimedia phones.
Prices will decline considerably over the next five years, meaning people will get more performance for every dollar spent. An analyst from Strategy Analytics noted that what are considered premium phones today will be "entry-level" phones in the future. The wholesales price of WAP, or microbrowser-equipped, phones, for example, will decline to below $US70, while smart phones that include a microprocessor and offer calendars, to do lists and other personal information management features will decline to around $US100 from $US200 today.
Still, microbrowser-equipped cell phones will account for 70 per cent of the units sold and 60 per cent of annual revenue in 2005, according to the study.
Asia PC sales rise 35 per cent in Q2
The Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market grew strongly in the second quarter of 2000 to reach a record 4.8 million unit shipments, 35 per cent higher than for the same period last year, according to figures from research company International Data Corp (IDC). The strong growth pattern exhibited in the first half of 2000 is expected to continue through the second half of the year and annual PC sales for the full year are targeted to be 36 per cent higher than in 1999. IDC's forecast for the year is for 19.6 million PCs to be shipped in the region.
Thriving consumer desktop and portable sales will largely drive the strong performance expected over the course of this year, and demand will continue to accelerate as many governments are making efforts to promote PC ownership in their countries. Leading the strong growth for 2000 will be countries such as India and Korea, where annual sales are forecast to grow more than 50 per cent from the year before according to IDC's forecasts.
Legend Holdings is now the largest PC vendor in the Asia/Pacific market, with nine per cent share of the overall market due to its dominance of the Chinese market, the biggest market in the region. Korea's Samsung Electronics. increased sales 104 per cent from the year earlier period as sales in its home market rebounded strongly.
Online business centres make waves
The online business centre industry is abounding with revenue growth opportunities, according to Cahners In-Stat Group. This industry will grow from less than $US200 million in annual revenues in 2000 to more than $US1 billion by 2003, with strong growth expected to continue thereafter. In-Stat's vendor side research reveals that much of OBC's revenue opportunities lie in their ability to facilitate transitions, mediating more than $US2 billion in commerce in 2004. However, these predicted revenues are contingent upon industry players' ability to become definitive destinations/resources for their users, essentially functioning as hubs for activity in small business market, including the procurement of products and services.
These emerging providers have made excellent progress in the last year. However, they still have a long way to go before they can begin to capitalise on their growing user bases effectively or consistently. For the most part, the right mix of content, community and services is yet to be found in any one player, although partnerships promise that this will soon change.
As the industry develops, these firms must be able to monetise their growing user-bases. This will become critical to their long-term success and is likely to require the restructuring of content/services to more effectively engage users regularly. If OBCs cannot create an environment where users both gravitate and operate, they are unlikely to achieve real traction financially In-Stat warned.