Figures from Informa Telecoms & Media predict that the smartphone market will begin to diverge and sales will become dominated by two poles – the low-end devices (priced below $150) and the high-end devices (priced above $250). The expensive smartphones will find their market share shrinking from 85 per cent of total smartphones sold in 2011 to 33 per cent in 2017. In contrast, the low-end smartphones will gain enormous amount of market share over the years to account for just over half (52 per cent) of the smartphones sold in 2017.
The ongoing patent wars between mobile device manufacturers featured a decisive battle late Friday, when the jury deliberating on the argument between US company Apple and South Korea’s Samsung found against the Android-focused firm. The US jury awarded Apple damages of $1bn, after ruling that Samsung did indeed infringe several of Apple’s patented designs and features.
Japanese electronics vendor Fujitsu has announced its intention to launch smartphones and tablets into the European market just as mobile operators are looking to reduce the number of device vendors they work with. Fujitsu has a 20 per cent share of the Japanese mobile device market, according to Robert Pryke, director of Fujitsu’s European device business.
Panasonic has confirmed that it will be re-entering the smartphone space, with its sights fixed on the European market. The Japanese firm aims to re-enter the European market in March 2012.
Huawei pushed the boat out when it announced its two new Android-based devices, the MediaPad tablet and the Vision smartphone. The Chinese firm hired out a lavish venue; a converted church in Mayfair, and dug deep into its pockets to entice Brit-winning UK act Plan B into performing, inviting an array of reality TV stars along to add an element of “exclusivity” to the event.
Mobile operator 3UK has announced that 97 per cent of all the traffic travelling through its network today is data. The carrier added that in the 14 months between June 2010 and September 201, it has seen a 427 per cent increase in data usage for smartphone customers.
A frenzy of speculation has been unleashed ahead of a planned strategic briefing from Nokia on Friday 11th February, after a document reported to be an internal memo from CEO Stephen Elop has been published online. The document, which the BBC claimed on Wednesday to have verified as genuine, compares Nokia’s current position in the handset market to that of a man being forced to choose between the burning oil rig on which he stands and the dangerous, icy seas into which he must jump to avoid the flames.
Smartphone use accounts for 65 per cent of all mobile cellular traffic worldwide, despite smartphone penetration running at just 13 per cent, according to research released today from Informa Telecoms & Media. Usage is set to increase exponentially over the next five years, Informa found, with average traffic per smartphone user increasing by 700 per cent by 2015.
Android moved to third position in the smartphone OS market worldwide in the second quarter, while HTC made its first appearance in the top ten handset vendor rankings published by industry analyst Gartner, the analyst said Thursday.
(Berlin/Barcelona, February 15, 2010) Cortado, the experts in mobile business solutions, today announced its free mobile office solution for BlackBerry® smartphone users, Cortado Workplace. The Cortado Workplace solution allows BlackBerry smartphone users to store documents and files in the cloud and access them anytime and anywhere via the Cortado Workplace file manager application or the browser. The solution also includes printing, enabling users to print documents on any local or network printer.
Korean handset vendor Samsung planted a proprietary flag in the OS wars on Tuesday as it took the wraps off its Bada platform (first announced a month previously) at a glitzy event on London’s South Bank.
US vendor Motorola has invested in Sensitive Object, a French firm that specialises in ‘natural user interface’ (NUI) solutions. Through its VC arm Motorola Ventures, the US manufacturer has taken an undisclosed stake in Sensitive Object, parting with an undisclosed sum for the privilege. Some reports have suggested Motorola has acquired the company completely.
Taste of freedom: Lee Williams, executive director of the Symbian Foundation talks about the body’s achievements so far.
If they build it, will they come?: 2009 has been the year of the applications stores. We examine the trends and look at the Symbian approach.
A carrier perspective: Mark Sage, device platform marketing manager at Orange shares his views.
The future’s bright, the future’s open: David Searles writes about why he believes openess has to be the future for mobile.
Taiwanese handset vendor HTC has signed a memorandum of understanding with China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator by subscriber numbers, that will see the two firms collaborate on the development of smartphones for China’s home-grown TD-SCDMA cellular standard.
Contents:
Open source: necessary but not sufficient
Interview: David Wood, Symbian
Analysis: Smart move for Nokia
Opinion: A Firm Foundation
Loading ...