ABI Research forecasts 2006 will be a bumper year for smartphones, with worldwide shipments growing by 100% and total share of the mobile handset market made up by smartphones to rise to 15%.
ABI analyst Phillip Solis says:
"Increasing demand for robust data communications applications — especially mobile email and instant messaging — will play a role, particularly as 3G speeds improve the appeal of mobile data services. With increasing sales volumes, prices are falling fast, while the choice of models on offer is growing rapidly (39% more models were available in 2005 than in 2004). Even as their functionality expands, smartphones are shrinking in size, offering lower power consumption and longer battery life. Finally, Wi-Fi is reaching into the smartphone, and we expect to see fully a quarter of all models offering embedded Wi-Fi by 2010."
With the push behind Windows Mobile lately, finally resurgent after languishing as a CE OS for some time, this news is good for Microsoft, as well as vendors with more robust smartphone lines. However, it may not be such good news for Symbian, which is being put under pressure by Windows Mobile as well as operators' demands for a more innovative OS.
March 6th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
Your link to the windows mobile vs symbian posting on msmobiles is to a very biased and crappy piece of writing.
March 7th, 2006 at 11:24 am
I have to agree I didnt find much credibility in that article.
March 7th, 2006 at 11:59 am
That may or may not be. It is a MS oriented site, but news coming out of 3GSM and around that time suggests that some major operators are pressuring Symbian to either improve or move aside. Windows Mobile, for better or worse, has made some gains in recent months.