Mobility Phones – Mobile Phones

In the land of mobile phone displays LCD is still king. However a number of new and not-so-new display technologies are vying for small slices of this vast realm. A new Research Brief from ABI Research examines the strengths and weaknesses of the leading contenders. Because LCD is a mature technology, it has a cost advantage that ensures its future as the primary display technology for some time to come. But while LCD displays have improved greatly over the years, their performance still falls short in a number of key areas such as power consumption and ...

The processor vendors supplying chips for UMDs (ultra-mobile devices) are playing a pivotal role in how this market is shaping up. X86-based processors are well entrenched in the PC world and ARM-based processors are well entrenched in the handset world. Since UMDs sit right between the PCs and handsets in terms of power, size, and function, x86-based and ARM-based processors will compete in the UMD space and are already fighting it out, starting with marketing wars. ABI Research principal analyst Philip Solis says, “x86-based processor vendors are in a very good position in the near term as far ...

Texas Instruments (TXN) has been ranked at the top of the latest Vendor Matrix released by ABI Research. Qualcomm (QCOM) and Intel Corporation (INTC) claimed the second and third spots in the company’s new evaluation of worldwide MID platform vendors.

”Certain MID vendors can work with ARM directly if they are used to creating complete designs for their products,” notes Philip Solis, principal analyst at ABI Research. “Among semiconductor vendors providing a processor and platform for MIDs, TI and Qualcomm have very different strengths that would be of varying interest depending on whether the MID vendor ...

With the global economy showing more and more signs of slowing down, mobile messaging growth will continue. In a recent report from ABI Research, mobile messaging services revenues will grow from $151 billion in 2008 to greater than $212 billion globally by 2013. Supply side drivers will be of primary importance for maintaining this level of growth.

Principal analyst Dan Shey comments: “Mobile messaging ARPUs are 85%+ of all handset data services revenues regardless of region and will remain so for many years. As messaging involves all the biggest players in the mobile industry there will be ...

As mobile network expansion moves ostensibly to emerging markets where solar energy levels are more favorable, solar power appears ready to play an important role in reducing the costs of cellular service delivery and ensuring a more reliable power supply. The OEMs’ drive toward reducing base station power consumption, along with improvements in photovoltaic cells, have meant that solar energy is now a very viable solution for powering cellular base stations.ABI Research vice president Stuart Carlaw says, “Solar power will first be used in conjunction with other primary energy sources such as ...

GPS semiconductor vendors are increasingly focusing on GSM handsets as their next target market for GPS chipsets. While until now CDMA handsets and navigation devices have been the main GPS product categories, GSM mobile phones are expected to increasingly feature GPS-chipsets as handset-based navigation and a wide range of location based services such as local search and social networking become popular. GPS already has become a standard feature on smartphones, with recently launched products from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Palm and Samsung and the iconic iPhone, expected ...

If Google's ambitions for its recently-launched Android smartphone operating system are fully realized, the new OS will represent a tipping point in attitudes towards the whole concept of a smartphone. This tectonic shift will affect consumers, handset manufacturers and, most critically, mobile network operators.According to ABI Research director Kevin Burden, "If Android is to become the ubiquitous mobile phone platform that Google and the Open Handset Alliance hope it will be, it will be because operators and handset OEMs recognize the value to their own business models of using standard platforms, not because ...

From a virtual “standing start” of just 10 million units in 2008, shipments of ultra-mobile devices (UMDs -- the umbrella term for ultra-mobile PCs, netbooks and Mobile Internet Devices) are expected to exceed 200 million in 2013.According to ABI Research principal analyst Philip Solis, “The UMD market will still be small compared to the wireless handset market, but with a forecast revenue of nearly US$27 billion in 2013, it will certainly be significant.” While netbooks account for about 90% of today’s UMD market, they will fall to a distant second place by 2013, while MID ...

Touch screens have been available for some time and are found in a variety of fixed and portable devices, but it was the launch of Apple’s iPhone that refocused the public’s attention on them as never before. Shipments in 2007 of touch screen-based mobile devices increased 91% over 2006, and ABI Research forecasts that revenue from the global touch screen market for mobile phones and other handheld devices such as MIDs, UMPCs, and PNDs will reach $5 billion in 2009.“Nearly all mobile handset manufacturers are getting into touch screens to a ...

Online social networking is huge and growing strongly, but what happens when all those virtual friends hit the road? Increasingly, they will be able to keep in touch via mobile versions of their favorite social networks, running on their cellular phones. ABI Research forecasts that in 2013, more than 140 million subscribers will share “anytime, anywhere” experiences this way, and they will generate subscription revenues in excess of $410 million.“Subscriber numbers for mobile social networking will climb at a relatively modest rate for the next three or four years, but will then start to accelerate sharply,” says ...

The Mobile Internet Devices (MID) market is likely to be the first real example of a greenfield situation in which all mobile operating systems start on the same equal footing, without the baggage of previous histories such as existed in the smartphone market. The Linux OS, in the form of Moblin, LiMo and Maemo, looks ready to take the lion’s share of the MID market and is set to capture unit volumes of 50 millions units per annum in 2013.ABI Research vice president and research director Stuart Carlaw says, “Maemo is ...

In the wake of personal navigation devices' success, cellular carriers have started to offer on-board and off-board navigation solutions, as well as a range of LBS (Location Based Services) such as friend finder and local search on GPS handsets. Community and social-networking-related functionality, such as the sharing of POIs (Points of Interest) and geo-tagged pictures, is also becoming popular and is expected to boost GPS-enabled handset uptake as carriers, handsets manufacturers, and service providers look to capitalize on the LBS trend."While most CDMA handsets are already GPS-enabled and GPS is ...

While a large number of phones today still use browsers with very limited web browsing capabilities, many smartphones are incorporating browsers that support the latest capabilities such as AJAX and RSS, as well as websites optimized for viewing on a mobile device. ABI Research sees this segment of the mobile browser market accounting for the vast majority of growth over the next five years, as the open-Internet browser (OIB) segment for mobile grows from 76 million in 2007 to nearly 700 million browsers delivered in 2013."The focus today for mobile browser developers is to take ...

Verizon Wireless and AT&T were the major winners across the board, together accounting for more than 80% of the auction's $19.1 billion in bids. Verizon won seven of the 12 Regional Economic Area Groups (REAGs) in block C which provides nationwide coverage in the continental United States and Hawaii, and which also carries an "open network" requirement for the license holder. According to ABI Research senior analyst Nadine Manjaro, "These licenses will enable Verizon to extend coverage into rural areas and potentially pose a significant threat to rural operators. In addition, since ...

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 ...

Nokia has been ranked at the top of the latest Vendor Matrix released by ABI Research.Research in Motion (RIM) and Samsung claimed the second and third spots in the company's most recent evaluation of worldwide smartphone vendors. Vice president and research director Stuart Carlaw comments, "Nokia's commitment to driving smart OS into a wider range of devices, and the success of its N series devices, especially the N95, gives it a huge market presence. Looking to the future, this segment will become increasingly crowded as Linux-based new entrants try to erode Nokia's position." The Vendor Matrix is ...

The total number of 4G subscribers worldwide, including both LTE and WiMAX, is expected to exceed 90 million in 2013, but a number of milestones must be passed en route, according to a new forecast from ABI Research. At the end of 4Q 2007, says the firm, there were nearly 3.4 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, with 2.7 billion on GSM/EDGE/GPRS networks.Worldwide WCDMA subscriber numbers hit 180 million in 4Q 2007. ABI Research expects migration to HSPA+ to begin in early 2010, and migration to LTE will commence by the middle of the same year. ...

Sales of mobile phone accessories are expected to generate over $40 billion in revenue in 2008. Handset vendors and mobile operators know that to increase sales of their feature-rich handsets, they also need to provide accessories that will allow users to fully enjoy and benefit from the applications and features supported by the handsets. This means providing accessories such as headsets, memory cards, and data connection kits, in addition to chargers and batteries."Current market trends including the growing adoption of smartphones in the prosumer and consumer segments, as well as the increasing popularity ...

NEC Corporation today announced that NEC Europe, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, is working with mobile operator Telefonica O2 Europe to deliver the UK's first live femtocell trial.O2 has begun an initial period of live testing in February. If successful, the trial will be rolled out in greater numbers across the UK in the summer, with the view to a commercial launch by early 2009. NEC is providing O2 with its Femtocell Solution, which includes 3G Femtocell Access Point for direct subscriber use, Femtocell Gateway and Access Point Management and Provisioning System. The demand ...

Shipments of recycled handsets (old handsets recycled for reuse) are expected to exceed 100 million units in 2012, according to a recent study from ABI Research. Shorter handset replacement periods, growing demand for low-cost handsets in emerging markets, regulatory requirements, and growing consumer awareness are key factors driving the market for recycled handsets.ABI Research industry analyst Shailendra Pandey says, "Mobile phone recycling companies such as ReCellular, Fonebak, and Eazyfone are witnessing good market growth, but increasing consumer awareness and retrieving used handsets at affordable prices are still key challenges. Also, the ASP ...