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Wireless Management Report: Global Growth of Smartphones Good News for Industry

Wireless Management

Wireless Management - Featured Article

February 02, 2010

Wireless Management Report: Global Growth of Smartphones Good News for Industry

By Marisa Torrieri, TMCnet Editor

Thanks to the popularity of new, super-high-tech smartphones – not to mention President Obama’s “Broadband Stimulus” package and an improved global economy -- the fourth quarter of 2009 turned out to be pretty exciting for the global handset market.

 
According to ABI Research’s (News - Alert) “Mobile Devices Market Sizing and Share” and “Mobile Devices Market Forecast Analysis” reports, an estimated 336.5 million handsets were shipped in Q4, up 15.1 percent from same quarter one year ago.
 
“Obama’s stimulus package certainly helped save the mobile handset industry,” said Jake Saunders, vice president for forecasting for ABI Research. “Renewed consumer confidence in the second half of 2009 meant that shipments for the whole year only shrank 4.5 percent to 1.153 billion. Dire scenarios were mooted in early 2009. There is cautious optimism about 2010 despite the fragile nature of the global recovery. ABI Research forecasts shipments to expand to 1.2 billion handsets in 2010.”
 
Although Apple’s iPhone and Motorola’s (News - Alert) DROID enjoyed national fame in the United States, Nokia maintained 37.1 percent of the overall worldwide handset market, followed by Samsung at 20.5 percent and LG at 10.1 percent.
 
And it was Motorola’s DROID smartphone – which features Google Android’s (News - Alert) operating system -- helped the telecom manufacturer stay competitive.  
 
“The DROID has received critical acclaim,” said practice director Kevin Burden.  “However Motorola’s market-share continued to contract to 3.6.”
 
Sony-Ericsson (News - Alert) also experienced a contraction to 4.3 percent but has high hopes that its Android-based handsets will generate renewed interest, according to ABI Research.
  
As more consumers use smartphones at home and for business, telecom managers will need to focus on separating off-the-clock charges with real business usage.
 
Amtel (News - Alert) recently announced that its TIMS mobile expense management software platform does this, by providing segregation of mobile apps downloaded for smartphones in a corporate environment.
 
That means companies can automatically send the “charges split report” for non-approved download charges to the end users and the corporate accounting.
 
“With the popularity of mobile apps it is putting an extra burden on the corporate mobile billing,” Pankaj Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Amtel, recently told TMCnet. “Companies are struggling to find ways to implement mobile policy and segregate the individual apps spending from the allowable corporate usage policy.”

Marisa Torrieri is a TMCnet Web editor, covering IP hardware and mobility, including IP phones, smartphones, fixed-mobile convergence and satellite technology. She also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet's gadgets and satellite e-Newsletters. To read more of Marisa's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Marisa Torrieri


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