U.S. Quarterly Smartphone Tracker 

The U.S. smartphone market is growing rapidly with new products, applications and services being introduced monthly. Operators are now starting to offer a range of smartphone designs from multiple vendors, each using one of the major operating systems.

To track the development of this market more accurately, iGR has introduced a Quarterly Smartphone Tracking product for the U.S. market.

Each quarter, iGR delivers a unique range of data showing the major trends in the U.S. smartphone market enabling handset OEMs, mobile operators and other vendors to track trends within the market. Based on a detailed market model,
iGR determines each quarter:

• Smartphone sales trends for consumer, small business and medium/large business in the U.S.
• Splits between smartphone OS – note that as Android and Linux OS become more prevalent, the tracker will include these OS and provide additional detail.
• Splits between major OS for smartphone shipments into the channel.
• Major trends in the market, such as introduction of new devices, upgrades to OS, new distribution agreements and pricing changes.

For each quarter, iGR prepares a report detailing the findings for that period. Smartphone sales are shown for the quarter by major operating system and market segment, as well as the overall market share. Subsequent tables show the market share of each operating system within market segments. In addition, iGR also shows how the data is trending compared to previous quarters in the study.

Methodology

Providing quarterly market data is complex and expensive, mainly due to the short amount of time available, the number of data points required and the market knowledge required. iGR addresses these issues by building a detailed market model that is continually updated throughout the quarter. Data for the model is from:

• Surveys of U.S. consumers, small business IT decision makers and large business IT decision makers. iGR will survey at least 4,000 respondents throughout the quarter, including 1,000 to 2,000 business IT decision maker. Using the proposed methodology, iGR's data set will include at least 200,000 data points per quarter.
• Existing iGR research and market data, including existing surveys, market models, and forecasts. Since we have built detailed models previously, this knowledge can be used to build an accurate quarterly model.
• Vendor information, financial results and shipment information. Data comes from the smartphone OEMs, mobile operators, distributors and technology providers.

iGR uses existing e-Rewards panels for the surveys. Questions are limited to smartphone buying practices and intent – questions are consistent between segments and from quarter to quarter to allow direct comparison and correction of the data as required. The four panels used in the tracking product are:

• Consumer: 1,500 U.S. adult consumers (age 18+) using a U.S. census sample framework.
• Small Business: 500 Decision-makers at U.S. companies with between 5 and 100 employees.
• IT Decision-Maker: 500 Manager-level+ at U.S. companies with more than 100 employees.

Data from the OEMs and vendors is used to enhance the accuracy of the model (i.e. to match the actual industry performance with the trends indicated in the surveys). Once the model is established, this allows iGR to use the survey results to track the performance of the smartphone market month-to-month.

Deliverables

iGR delivers the quarterly smartphone report showing the complete data for the quarter. The quarterly report will be delivered by the 7th business day following the end of the quarter.

Each report includes:

• Smartphone sales trends for consumer, small business and medium/large business in the U.S.
• Splits between smartphone OS – note that as Android and Linux OS become more prevalent, the tracker will include these OS and provide additional detail.
• Splits between major OS for smartphone shipments into the channel.
• Major trends in the market, such as introduction of new devices, upgrades to OS, new distribution agreements and pricing changes.