July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

China has surpassed the U.S. as the world’s largest smartphone market, according to mobile analytics firm Flurry.
Based on data from its analytics service, which tracks 2.4 billion app sessions per day, China has just surpassed the U.S. as the No. 1 market for actively used smartphones and tablets.

“The U.S. is now No. 2 and will not recover,” said Peter Farago, vice president of marketing at Flurry.

China has been the fastest-growing smart device market for more than a year. In January, China had 221 million active smart devices, while the U.S. had 222 million. Based on a projection for February, China will have 246 million devices by the end of this month, compared to 230 million for the U.S.

By tracking 275,000 apps, Flurry estimates it can measure activity across more than 90 percent of the world’s smart devices.

“We also conclude that the U.S. will not take back the lead from China, given the vast difference in population per country,” Farago said. “China has over 1.3 billion people while the U.S. has just over 310 million. Considering that the U.S. has the worlds’ third-largest population, the only other country that could feasibly overtake China sometime in the future is India, with a population of just over 1.2 billion.”

But India has only 19 million active smart devices. The U.S. and China each have more than five times the installed base of the United Kingdom, the world’s third-largest smartphone market. In the year ended January, 2013, the U.S. added 55 million new smart devices. But China added 150 million.

In terms of active smart devices, China grew 209 percent from 71 million a year ago. Countries that grew faster than China in the past year were Columbia, Vietnam, Turkey, Ukraine and Egypt.

Used for computer animations and games, the original Organic Motion machines introduced the idea of “markerless” motion capture. In the past, actors had to wear black suits with small white balls, or markers, attached to them so that cameras could capture their motion on a sound stage. With markerless motion capture, the actors didn’t have to wear the cumbersome gear.

“It’s a very different experience now,” said Jonathan Rand, president, in an interview.

With its new OpenStage motion capture system, New York-based Organic Motion will allow for more demanding animated scenes. It will be able to capture scenes with multiple actors performing in the same space. It will also have increased accuracy and no longer requires a backdrop to discern figures in motion. Rand said that the OpenStage is much more configurable than the company’s previous product. The previous one had 14 cameras and had to have a backdrop. But the new one ranges from eight cameras to 24 cameras and can cover areas ranging from four-square feet to 30-square feet. The cost is $40,000 to $80,000.

The company is targeting the technology at commercial animators, educators, and public exhibitors. Organic Motion is showing off the technology at the Siggraph computer graphics conference in Vancouver, Canada. Professionals can use it for preproduction, production, live entertainment and training.

OpenStage uses a unique computer vision software and high-speed color cameras to capture multiple angles from 360 degrees. Now it has the ability to track basic props and a larger scanning space, and it is portable as well. Andrew Tschesnok, chief executive of Organic Motion, said that the new features are based on feedback from thousands of people who have worked with the company’s earlier system.

Among the companies and institutions that will use the new system are Game On Audio in Los Angeles to capture voice and body performances; the School of Visual Arts in New York to create computer art and animation; University of California at Santa Cruz for film, digital media, and computer science; and ZeroC7 in Japan for animation production and live use at public events.

The company has raised $10 million to date from the Foundry Group and Megu Capital. Tschesnok began research on the technology in 2002 and founded a company around it in 2006. Rivals that compete in some fashion include Mova and Image Metrics.