Author Archives: admin

Vacant Houses

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In this year’s edition of the always useful Statistical Abstract of the United States, a publication we turn to often in our work, we found the number of vacant housing units (single-family attached and detached units as well as apartments, all capable of occupancy year-round).

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: 13,688,000 units
Source: “Housing Units—Characteristics by Tenure and Region: 2009,” Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011, Table 983, U.S. Census Bureau, page 616.
Original source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.

Mobile Phones Worldwide

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The market size listed here is the number of mobile phones sold worldwide in the third quarter of 2010, of which, 19.3% were smartphones, as we saw in our last market size entry.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 3rd Quarter 2010
Market size: 417 million units
Source: “Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Grew 35 Percent in Third Quarter 2010; Smartphone Sales Increased 96 Percent,” Gartner Newsroom press release dated November 10, 2010 and available online here.
Original source: Gartner Inc.

Smartphones

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The definition of a smartphone, according to PC Magazine, is as follows: “A cellular telephone with built-in applications and Internet access. Smartphones provide digital voice service as well as text messaging, e-mail, Web browsing, still and video cameras, MP3 player and video and TV viewing.” In addition to their built-in functions smartphones can run a variety of computer applications which makes them true computing devices. All of this functionality varies from smartphone to smartphone and to a large degree depends on the operating systems that run these devices. The leading smartphone operating systems, based on units currently in use, are (1) Apple’s iPhone OS, (2) RIM Blackberry OS, and (3) Google’s Android OS.

The market size listed here shows the number of smartphones sold worldwide in the third quarter of 2010. Smartphone sales in this quarter represented 19.3% of all mobile phone sales.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 3rd Quarter 2010
Market size: 80.5 million units
Source: “Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Grew 35 Percent in Third Quarter 2010; Smartphone Sales Increased 96 Percent,” Gartner Newsroom press release dated November 10, 2010 and available online here.
Original source: Gartner Inc.

Mobile Advertising Market

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Mobile advertising is promotional activity designed to be delivered to cell phone, smartphone and other handheld device users. The market size presented here also includes Web-based search and display ads. As more consumers use smartphones and other handheld devices to access the Web, advertisers have devoted more money to mobile advertising. According to IDC, the mobile advertising market may double to $2 billion in 2011. Google had a 59 percent share of the market; Apple had less than a 10 percent share in 2010.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009 and 2010
Market size: $368 million and $877 million respectively
Source: Olga Kharif, “Google Gains Market Share in U.S. Mobile Ads,” Bloomberg Businessweek, December 3, 2010 and available online here.
Original source: IDC

Internet Users Worldwide

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The source for this market size is a poster offering a variety of interesting statistics about “our connected world.” Covered on the poster—a link to which is provided below—are statistics on the number of Internet users by country, broadband subscription rates by country, and numbers of people who have mobile only phone access by country. The data are presented graphically and we found it to be an interesting and useful presentation of the material.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2010
Market size: 1.734 billion users, 20.8% of whom are in China.
Source: “Our Connected World,” made available online by buzzhunt.co.uk here.
Original source: GigaOM, Cisco, and Internet World Stats.

Fortune Telling Services

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A desire to know the future, to be able to make decisions with a firmer idea of what is to come, is a desire one finds in most human communities. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 1 in 7 Americans consulted a psychic or fortuneteller in 2009. The market size presented below is the amount spent by Thais annually on visits to traditional fortune tellers.

Here’s hoping 2011 is a very good year!

Geographic reference: Thailand
Year: 2008
Market size: $63 million
Source: “When the Spirits Talk, As They Frequently Do, Thais Are Eager to Listen,” The New York Times, January 1, 2011, page A1.
Original source: Kasikorn Research Center in Bangkok.

Champagne Consumption

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Not surprisingly, the nation with the largest consumption of champagne is the nation in which champagne is made, namely, France. The French consume approximately 177.6 million bottles of champagne each year. In terms of per capita consumption, two of France’s territories actually out consume the French population. Guadeloupe has an annual per capita consumption of champagne that is the highest in the world at 3.74 bottles per person. Next is Martinique with a per capita consumption of 3.3 bottles per person and France comes in third with per capita consumption of just under 3 bottles per person (2.93 bottles).

For a list of the countries with the highest champagne consumption, look at the table to which we provide a link in the source note below. Column 3 shows the number of bottles sold annually by country, in millions, and column 7 shows the per capita, bottle consumption figure per country.

Happy New Year!

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2009 (based on publication date)
Market size: 300.62 million bottles annually
Source: de Nederlandse Champagne Pagina’s, a website presenting interesting statisitcs about the champagne business worldwide, available online here.

Christmas Trees

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For our last market size posting before Christmas, later this week, we thought we’d present some figures on the industry involved in growing all those Christmas trees we decorate this time of year. The market sizes below are the number of trees harvested from Christmas tree farms in 2002 and 2007, a period over which we see a decline in numbers.
Tree Farm

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2002 and 2007
Market size: 20.8 million and 17.4 million trees respectively
Source: “USDA Census of Agriculture,” update, National Christmas Tree Association, available here. The image of trees being loaded on a truck is from the Pure Michigan website, available here.
Original source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Toys, Dolls, and Games

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The size of the retail market for toys, dolls, and games is our market size post for today. It seems a natural topic for this week of Christmas preparations.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2008
Market size: $21.6 billion
Source: “Toys — Industry Outlook,” Great American Group, Volume 121, available here.
Original source: The NPD Group, Inc.

Visitors to Public Gardens

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Data show the number of visitors per year to public gardens in the United States. In many places the number of visitors to public gardens has declined in recent years. According to Rick Colbert, director of Tyler Arboretum in Pennsylvania, founded in 1825, “young families are not interested in being outside…. Kids today are much more comfortable behind a computer screen.” As a result, many public gardens are promoting their sustainability efforts, tapping into the theme of “going green”, which is popular with young people.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: 70 million
Source: W. Barksdale Maynard, “A Bold New Mission for Arboreta: Sustainability,” American Forests, Autumn 2010, pages 38-43

Turkeys

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The size of the market presented here is based on values at the wholesale level, farm receipts for sales of turkeys.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: $3.6 billion
Source: “U.S. Farm Sector Cash Receipts from Sales of Agricultural Commodities, 2006-2010F,” a table on the USDA’s Economic Research Service website, available online here.
Original source: Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture

Truck Border Crossings into the U.S. from Mexico

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Four U.S. states share a land border with Mexico over which a great deal of commerce enters the United States by truck. The measurement presented here is the number of truckloads entering the United States from Mexico in 2009. Texas is the state through which the largest number of trucks cross the U.S.–Mexican border.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: 4,291,000 crossings
Source: “Table 3-18: Incoming Truck Crossings, U.S. – Mexican Border: 2002–2009,” State Transportation Statistics 2009, page C-14.
Original source: Research and Innovation Technology Administration, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation

Truck Border Crossings into the U.S. from Canada

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Ten U.S. states share a land border with Canada over which a great deal of commerce enters the United States by truck. The measurement presented here is the number of truckloads entering the United States from Canada in 2009. Michigan is the state through which the largest number of trucks cross the border.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: 5,021,000 crossings
Source: “Table 3-12: Incoming Truck Crossings, U.S. – Canadian Border: 2002–2009,” State Transportation Statistics 2009, page C-12.
Original source: Research and Innovation Technology Administration, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation

Tea Sales

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While coffee is still the hot drink of choice for most Americans, sales of tea have been growing for more than a decade now. Tea sales rose 32% between 2005 and 2009 according to market researcher Packaged Foods.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: $8.5 billion of which 67.1% was sold at retail.
Source: Melissa Domsic, “E. Lansing Teahouse Brings Wanderers Home,” The Towne Courier, December 5, 2010, pages 14-15
Original source: Specialty Coffee Retailer

Pork (well, U.S. hogs really)

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The size of the market presented here is based on values at the wholesale level, farm receipts for sales of hogs.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: $14.4 billion
Source: “U.S. Farm Sector Cash Receipts from Sales of Agricultural Commodities, 2006-2010F,” one of many tables on the USDA’s Economic Research Service website, available online here.
Original source: Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture

Peanuts

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The size of the market presented here is based on values at the wholesale level, farm receipts for sales of peanuts.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: $800 million
Source: “U.S. Farm Sector Cash Receipts from Sales of Agricultural Commodities, 2006-2010F,” a table on the USDA’s Economic Research Service website, available online here.
Original source: Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture

Corn

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The size of the market presented here is based on values at the wholesale level, farm receipts for the sale of corn.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: $42.0 billion
Source: “U.S. Farm Sector Cash Receipts from Sales of Agricultural Commodities, 2006-2010F,” a table on the USDA’s Economic Research Service website, available online here.
Original source: Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture

Rice in the United States

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The size of the market presented here is based on values at the wholesale level, farm receipts for sales of rice.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: $3.0 billion
Source: “U.S. Farm Sector Cash Receipts from Sales of Agricultural Commodities, 2006-2010F,” a table on the USDA’s Economic Research Service website, available online here.
Original source: Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture

Bridges

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The total number of road bridges presented in this market size post can be broken down by whether these are rural bridges or urban area bridges. Rural bridges make up 74% of the total and urban bridges 26%. According to the source, nearly a quarter of these bridges are in poor shape, defined as either structurally deficient or, more ominously, functionally obsolete.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: 601,078 bridges
Source: “Table 1-5: Number of Road Bridges by Functional System: 2009,” State Transportation Statistics 2009, page A-5.
Original source: Research and Innovation Technology Administration, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation

Miles of Toll Roads

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The vast majority of roads in the United States are freeways, in the true sense of the word, no direct fee for use is charged for traveling those roads. Only a very small number of toll roads exist in the United States, as of 2008. That number will likely grow if the trend towards the privatizing of previously public activities continues.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2008
Market size: 4,919.6 miles
Source: “Table 1-3: Toll Roads, Toll Bridges and Tunnels, and Toll Ferry Routes: 2008,” State Transportation Statistics 2009, page A-3.
Original source: Research and Innovation Technology Administration, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation