IDC predicts Smartphone boom by 2010

Bhaskar Hazarika

NEW DELHI: Smartphones are increasingly becoming popular among the mobile subscribers, who want to remain accessible to their office mails and connected to the Web.

According to various mobile handset manufacturers, the smartphone market has initially started off with the user segment mostly targeted for information workers and middle management employees.

However, the rising demand of full-featured email functionalities on the phone along with the voice has helped in increasing the demand for smartphones.

According to InStat, a leading market research firm, 18.8 million smartphones were sold in APAC in 2006 and this number is expected to increase to 64.2 million by 2010.

Chakrapani GK, country general manager, Nokia Enterprise Solutions, said that the market figures clearly shows the huge demand of smartphones in the emerging markets. Nearly six per cent of the global mobile phone market constitutes of smartphones.

What is a Smartphone?

Wikipedia defined a smartphone as a full-featured mobile phone with personal computer like functionality. Most smartphones are camera phones that support full-featured email capabilities with the functionality of a complete personal organizer. "Smart" functionality includes any additional interface including a miniature QWERTY keyboard, a touch screen, or even just secure access to company mail.

Chakrapani termed smartphone as “a device which is ideal for customization with the ability to add-on applications and also edit and share popular business applications, such as documents, spreadsheets and presentation files.”

Looking at the current mobile scenario almost, all new mobile phones having some rudimentary PDA functionality such as phonebooks, calendars and task lists. Additionally, BREW and Java ME devices allow for the installation of additional applications but are still not considered Smartphones. Wikipedia also explains that "Smart" functionality includes any additional interface including a miniature QWERTY keyboard, a touch screen, or even just secure access to company mail, such as is provided by a BlackBerry.

History of Smartphone

Siemon was the first Smartphone designed by IBM in 1992. It was released to the public in 1993 and sold by BellSouth. More than a mobile phone, it also comprised a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, and games. It had touch-screen to select phone numbers with a finger or create facsimiles and memos with an optional stylus. Text was entered with a unique on-screen "predictive" keyboard.

In 1996 Nokia released its Nokia 9000, which was marketed as a Communicator. Then came Nokia 9210 with an open operating system, but Nokia continued to refer to it as a Communicator.

The term gained further credence in 2002 when Microsoft announced its mobile phone OS would thenceforth be known as ‘Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002’.

Demand side

According to IDC, “70 per cent of mobile devices will be Smartphones by 2010.” Currently the market for Smartphones is 38 per cent.

Norm W.K.Lo, vice president, Asia Pacific, Research In Motion (RIM) HK Ltd. said that they are witnessing double digit growth in the quarter to quarter. “The penetration of the smart phones in India is at a nascent stage, but it will take off. We are also planning to launch a couple of new models,” Lo informed.

“India is going to witness a boom in the PDA segment. The market is getting competitive now forcing manufacturers to launch windows based mobile phones. We are currently selling around 10 to 15 thousand units every month,” said Dilip Makhija, assistant trade manager (sales), Dopod India. The company has prepared a roadmap and is planning to launch a couple of new models in the next couple of months.

Chakrapani said that the driving factors for the increasing use of smartphones is the need for real-time access to information and on-demand access to applications such as email, calendar, contact and other information around the clock. The major benefit of staying in touch while roaming about is a 60 per cent improvement in business productivity, according to Forrester Research.

“The demand for smartphones is being fueled by the changing needs of today’s prosumers who expect their mobiles to be more than just communication devices without compromising the look, comfort, simplicity and usability of a standard mobile phone,” he added.

The increase in the disposable incomes of the people has also contributed to the demand of the high-end smartphone. This has been supplemented by the wide variety of devices available in the market will go a long way in accelerating the demand for such devices.

Availability

Handset manufacturers are struggling hard to launch smartphones with promising new features and applications.

Motorola is planning to come up with its smart model Moto Q, Windows Mobile. Lloyd Mathias, director marketing India (mobile devices), Motorola India, said that the handset has been launched in the global market and is expected in India soon. However, the company is keen on launching the CDMA model of Moto Q in the next two months and is coming up with the GSM model after that. The handset manufacturer has recently launched its new flagship entertainment PDA – MOTOROKR E6.

Apple iPhone is the most talked about gadget now. The iPhone is a multimedia and Internet-enabled mobile phone, which is yet to be launched. Apple officials denied revealing the date for the launch of its iPhone, but according to international reports, it is scheduled to hit the US market in June 2007.

Dopod Communications has launched its handsets in 19 cities and plans to expand to all the major towns of India. Nokia offers a comprehensive bouquet of eight smartphones to the Indian market.

This bouquet includes the Nokia E series that includes Nokia E50, E61, E65 and to be launched E61i and E90. “We also offer Nokia 9300 and 9300i smartphone and Nokia 9500 Communicator from our enterprise portfolio,” Chakrapani added.

© CyberMedia News