Message #1395 From:
TheMachine Date: July 12, 2008 08:07:38 PM
By 2013 One in Every Three Phones Sold Will Be a Smartphone
The market for smartphones will grow from around 10% of the total handset
market in 2007 to 31% of the market in 2013. A new study from ABI Research
projects this meteoric growth to be a product of a number of complex factors
including carriers' drives to grow data revenues from advanced services and the
general trend to pushing "smart" operating systems down into middle tier
devices.
ABI Research vice president Stuart Carlaw comments, "Smart operating systems
are continually being optimized to run on processors with lower performance.
There is a strategic move to support smart OSes in single chip midrange devices
in order to unlock more data revenues." Carlaw adds that, "The market is
currently dominated by Nokia (52%) and Symbian (65%). However, the coalescence
of the framework wars in the Linux environment and the growing stature of
Windows Mobile will enable new competitors to put pressure on this established
axis."
The report finds that the iPhone effect is truly filtering through the
handset market as other OEMs strive to remain competitive. Features that look
set to proliferate and become central to enhancing user interface experiences
include touchscreens, touchpads, and accelerometers facilitating tilt and shock
sensing, as well as haptics providing tactile feedback.
