France ranks #2 in terms of Smartphone, tablet, and and connected TV adoption, according to a recent report by Offremedia. The report claims that penetration of these ‘new media’ is at 38.8% in Norway and 35.7% in France, as of 2012. The report also makes predictions about where these countries will be in 2015, and has placed The Netherlands at first at 65.1%, which it claims is due to the quick adoption of Connected TVs in the country. The report also predicts that France will remain in its #2 slot, with 60.8% market adoption.
While the report explains that Norway’s #1 position is due primarily to its quick adoption of Connected TVs, it also points out that, while Tablet market penetration is only 5% on average in 2012, there are five markets which have 15%+ market penetration: France, Ireland, Australia, the US, and The Netherlands. Those three European markets are key to any app developers building on top of tablet platforms, and it’s not surprising to see that 3 of the 5 markets are Anglophone, as the Anglophone app market, on which these tablets rely, is much more strong than any other app market (by language).
The report indicates that by 2015, global tablet penetration should reach 13%, though it anticipates it will reach 45% in France and 50% in Ireland. Again. App developers on tablets, focus on these markets. 45%-50% is mass market, not just niche tech.
The United States, which did not place in the top 10, has only a 19.4% market penetration, while the Top 5 countries are all European, and Australia and South Korea were the only Non European countries on the top 10. While the report puts Canada in the top 5 in 2015 for market penetration, there’s no doubt that Europe is more and more looking to be a key market for app developers – obviously, there is a language problem here, but as localizing becomes more and more common practice, I think that the European market will become more and more on par with the US in terms of revenue for developers.
For the full report in French – here.