5G Dominates Early 2024 Smartphone Market, CounterPoint Finds

According to CounterPoint, 2 out of 3 smartphones sold in the first half of 2024 were 5G-capable. The first 5G-capable smartphone was introduced in 2019, and since then, OEMs have introduced a number of smartphones capable of 5G networks. In 2023, the shipment of smartphones with 5G capability surpassed 2 billion units. In 2019, the 5G-capable smartphone penetration was just 2%, which increased to 20% after the launch of the 5G-capable iPhone 12 series in 2020.

During 2020-21, the sales of 5G-capable smartphones were slowly increasing, but they were limited to the premium segment because of the high cost of 5G chipsets. In the next two years, 5G smartphones dropped from triple-digit percentage growth to single-digit percentage growth. Mature markets had high shares of mid-range to premium smartphones with 5G contribution, and they crossed 80%.

It is expected that India, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa will be emerging markets for 5G-capable smartphone growth. The biggest challenge here is that 5G smartphones should be available in lower price tiers. In the first half of 2024, the ASPs for global 5G smartphones had already dropped by 30% since their release in 2019. This became possible when chipset makers reduced the price difference between 4G and 5G chipsets. Transsion Group, Xiaomi, and Samsung have introduced 5G-capable smartphones at cheaper prices now.

Right now, all 5G-capable smartphones have prices above $400. Smartphones priced between $249-$399 are also getting popular. $100-$249 smartphones are still 4G for now. Many 5G chipset makers are making efforts to bring 5G to lower prices. OEM Xiaomi is going to be the first company to introduce a chipset priced below $100, which will be available by the end of 2024.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Researchers Find Apple AirTag, Samsung SmartTag2 Superior in Tracking Accuracy

The researchers over at 9to5Google shipped different trackers from United Kingdom to United States to find out which tracking networks are best in finding lost things. The researchers used different trackers like Pebblebee Clip, Samsung SmartTag2, Chipolo One Point and Apple Air Tag and tracked them on their respective networks. Apple Air Tag was tracked on Apple Find My, Samsung Tag2 was tracked on Samsung’s SmartThings and Pebblebee Clip and Chipolo were tracked on Google’s Find My Device. All the trackers were placed in one package and shipped away.

In the first 24 hours, Samsung SmartTag2 and Apple AirTag were quickly located 200 miles away from the original shipping location. Chipolo and Pebblebee were still showing their location at a postal storage. This may be because of the slow expansion of Find My Device in the UK. After almost 40 hours, these two were also located via Find My Device. After some time, all four trackers were listed as arriving in the USA at Newark International Airport. Even though there were some differences in the location of all trackers, they were still within a 100 meter radius of each other.

Image: 9to5G

After 72 hours, trackers were tracked at John F. Kennedy Airport but with less pronounced location discrepancies. AirTag was giving frequent location updates than other trackers while SmartTag2 was giving updates on a regular basis. Chipolo and Pebblebee were not getting updated that much. All the trackers were located within a few meters of each other. Now they had to be moved to different locations and AirTag and SmartTag2 were handling it well by frequently updating the location. But Chipolo and Pebblebee were still stuck in the location they were earlier in the day. The distance from their current location to the location they were stuck at was about 80 miles, showing how inaccurate Google’s network was.

On day five, almost 120 hours later, all trackers except Pebblebee showed an accurate final destination, Syracuse, New York. But Pebblebee was showing its location 30 miles away from the final destination. Even after refreshing several times, Pebblebee didn't change its location even though it was connected to the same account as Chipolo.

Even when the trackers were shipped to the true final destination, AirTag was quick with updates about location every 5-10 minutes. SmartTag2 was also doing well but Android’s Find My Device was less regular with its updates. The updates were coming every few hours. It is still good enough to have an idea about where you left something.

The results showed that Apple’s AirTag is a good tracker, along with Samsungs’s SmartTag2. But the same cannot be said about Google’s Find My Device. AirTag is good in the USA because of the large number of iPhone users there. Google’s default settings make it difficult to find a tracker in high traffic network areas but it can help you in getting an idea about where you left something.



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• These Are The World’s Most Visited Websites In 2024

by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

These Are The World’s Most Visited Websites In 2024

Latest data from SimilarWeb shows the most visited websites worldwide as of June 2024.

There are over 5.4 billion internet users, which make up 67.1% of the total population of the world. Many of them visit numerous websites daily, increasing the revenue of those websites.

As per June 2024 data, Google.com (boasting 18.32% of global web traffic share) is the most visited domain in the world with 82 billion monthly visits (approximately 2.73 billion visits daily). On average, a user views around 8 web pages on Google search and spends around 10 minutes on the website per visit. Following Google, the second most visited website globally is YouTube.com, with 31 billion monthly visits. Both of these websites are owned by Alphabet.

The third most visited website in the world is Meta’s Facebook.com, with 3.41% of global traffic share and 15 billion monthly visits. Instagram comes next with 7 billion monthly visits. X.com (Twitter) is the 5th most visited domain, with 6 billion monthly visits. All of the top five websites are based in the USA. The 6th most visited website is China’s search engine Baidu.com, with 4 billion monthly visits.

Other websites included in the top ten most visited websites in the world are Wikipedia.org and Yahoo.com. Russia’s search engine Yandex.ru is the 9th most visited website in the world, with 3 billion monthly visits. WhatsApp.com (by Meta) and ChatGPT.com (by OpenAI) also made it to the top 14 most visited websites in the world, both with 3 billion monthly visits.

Reddit.com is also one of the most visited websites in the world with a 0.51% traffic share, followed by TikTok.com with a 0.51% traffic share, and Amazon.com with a traffic share of 0.49%. All of these websites have 2 billion monthly visits. Wikipedia.org is the only non-commercial website on the list.

Domain	Global Traffic Share	Monthly Visits	Country	Industry
google.com	18.32%	82B	USA	Search Engine
youtube.com	6.96%	31B	USA	Video Sharing
facebook.com	3.41%	15B	USA	Social Media
instagram.com	1.55%	7B	USA	Social Media
x.com	0.87%	6B	USA	Social Media
baidu.com	0.98%	4B	China	Search Engine
wikipedia.org	0.93%	4B	USA	Online Encyclopedia
yahoo.com	0.75%	3B	USA	Web Portal
yandex.ru	0.70%	3B	Russia	Search Engine
whatsapp.com	0.67%	3B	USA	Messaging
chatgpt.com	0.62%	3B	USA	Software (AI)
reddit.com	0.51%	2B	USA	Social Media
tiktok.com	0.51%	2B	China	Social Media
amazon.com	0.49%	2B	USA	E-commerce

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Indonesia Bans Search Engine DuckDuckGo After Massive Complaints Issued By Users

DuckDuckGo has just been outlawed in Indonesia.

The popular search engine that gained fame for being one of the best in terms of offering privacy mentioned that its operations in the country have been stopped after the recent ban.

The question on many people’s minds is why. And the answer is simple. The wings were clipped after so many citizens issued complaints on the great number of complaints linked to explicit content including pornography and other illegal activities such as gambling.

The news is shocking because the popularity in the country amongst citizens was immense but the government explained to media outlet Reuters that they were left with no decision but to take immediate action.

The search results displayed rampant queries and requests for illegal content and considering how the country has the biggest population of Muslims who consider such acts against religion, it was something that was bound to happen.

As per data released by the government, three million citizens took part in the behavior last year and the situation was getting out of control.

It’s worth mentioning how this privacy tool mentioned on its main homepage how its goal is just to display to the world that its privacy protection is the top priority. This was not in line with what the government thinks who have been left with no solution but this.

Another interesting point is how the country has failed to take action against others like Google which is still functional.

In cases where users still want to continue using the search engine, private VPNs are trending in the country. This prevents being detected and enables IP address spoofing and access to the web. It’s like using it from a totally different country.

In terms of selecting the best secure VPN for evading censorship, experts recommend something that works well at targeting the killswitch. In this manner, when and if connectivity is in decline, users will not be left with browsing the actual IP address.

You’ll find so many great VPNs that work for free as well but for them to work in a country like Indonesia isn’t a simple task as experts note.

This is why the government is working on reducing access to free VPN tools from now.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

100 Million Americans to Use Generative AI by End of 2024: New Report

According to the GenAI User Forecast 2024 report by eMarketer, about 100.1 million US consumers are going to use generative AI at least once this year. This is a 900% increase from 7.8 USA people in 2022. The report also predicts that 32.6% of USA citizens who are internet users will become generative AI users this year too.

Google has already integrated generative AI in its search results so many people are already using generative AI without realizing it. Many social media apps are also using AI so many people are quickly getting used to generative AI in their everyday lives. Many workplaces are also incorporating AI in their daily tasks and it is predicted that many workplaces will shift to generative AI completely by the end of 2026.

In 2025, the number of generative AI users in the USA are going to jump to 116.8 million and in 2026, the number will likely reach 127.2 million. Nearly 36.7% of US citizens are going to become generative AI users by the end of 2026. 

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Unbelievable 2026 Trend: AI to Create 48% of Business Social Media Posts!

Capterra conducted a survey of 1600 social media marketers to find out how many companies are going to use generative AI in the future. According to the survey, 48% of the companies are planning to use generative AI for social media marketing by 2026. Right now, only 39% of the companies think so but this percentage is going to increase in the upcoming years. The survey says that use of generative AI in the marketing field is going to increase a lot in regional powers while other regions are also going to use AI tools for social media marketing.

Right now, Australia, Canada, USA and Brazil are doing above-average use of generative AI while Canada, Spain and Brazil are going to increase the use of AI the most in the upcoming 18 months. Currently, AI is being widely used in English speaking countries because most of the information AIs are trained on are in English. Even though most AI models offer translation features, English speakers can make the best use of available data.

38% of the companies are going to adapt to AI in hopes that it will increase work productivity and efficiency. 34% of them are going to use it for easier idea generation and 33% of companies will use it for increased content production. 94% of companies who are already using generative AI say that it has saved them a lot of time and 73% say that AI has helped them increase impressions and engagements. 34% also claimed that AI generated content performs well as compared to 49% who said human created content performs better.

Generative AI also comes with many risks to the companies. 43% of the companies say that maintaining the authenticity of AI generated content is top risk for them. 35% say that it is challenging to make the audience interested in AI generated content while 19% say that overcoming internal resistance is a risk for them. Overall, 94% of the companies are worried that using generative AI content is going to harm their reputation. Experts say that if businesses and companies want to implement AI, it is important for them to know its potential risks. Businesses should make AI policies to save their time, improve engagements and yield competitive advantages. It is also advised that companies shouldn't risk publishing boring or misleading content and should thoroughly check the content before posting it on social media. Make sure to track the performance of AI generated content and make changes in your strategies accordingly.

Take a look at the charts below for more insights:

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Google Enhances Chrome: Desktop Lens, AI-Driven Tab Comparison, and Natural Language Search Introduced

Google is expanding Lens, which was previously available only on mobile, to desktop users. Lens will now be accessible directly from the address bar and the three-dot menu in Google Chrome. Alongside this, Google is introducing new Gemini-powered features in Chrome, including a tab comparison tool for shopping and natural language integration for search history.

With Lens on desktop, users can click on various objects within images to identify brands. Additionally, users might receive AI-generated summaries when asking questions through Google Lens. The Gemini-powered Lens will also answer diverse queries, such as the water or sunlight requirements for a plant or solutions to math problems.

Another new feature is an AI-powered tab comparison tool. It will consolidate product information from multiple tabs into one view, allowing users to compare features, ratings, and prices without switching tabs.

Lastly, a natural language search history query will be available. If you forget what pages or searches led you to a particular result, you can ask, “What was the online bookstore I looked at yesterday?” Google will use page titles, URLs, and content to provide relevant search results. This feature will be rolled out to US users in the coming weeks.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World