The iPhone may become the leading Smartphone
By Gareth Powell
It is possible — some would say likely — that the iPhone will become the leading selling smartphone. This has tremendous implications for both Apple and Nokia, the market’s current leader.
Nothing remains static for ever and Nokia, which started off making wellington boots, has had the game to itself for a very long time. It dropped a clanger not bringing out a clear and defined competitor to the Apple iPhone. Now, in this area, it has lost market share.
Nokia is still in the lead when it comes to worldwide smartphone sales. But it could quickly be knocked of that perch if China decides the only way to view 3G phone calls is by way of the Apple iPhone. Even before it was officially launched in China there were well over a million being used. Now the potential is certainly for 200 times that much.
Generator Research, one of those analyst and research companies which should always be looked at slightly askance, claims in a new research report that Apple has what it takes to become the leader of the pack when it comes to Smartphones. Not in every sector. The high end business Blackberry push seems totally immovable. But elsewhere.
Apple’s smartphone efforts — and it should be said this is a very early stage — could push Nokia from the top spot in the worldwide smartphone shipments.
According to the research firm, Apple iPhone accounted for about 5% of all smartphone devices shipped globally during the third quarter of 2008, compared to 40% for Nokia’s smartphones.
But according to the report, released this week, Apple will soon begin shipping a range of mobile devices, giving it the upper hand by 2013 — while Nokia’s share will have declined to about 20%.
Is this possible? Is it likely?
Andrew Sheehy, Generator’s research chief, said, ‘Apple have a proven track record at making things simple and they are uniquely positioned to become the dominant force given their manufacturing, distribution, software, hardware and infrastructure.’
The news comes as smartphone adoption continues to spike thanks to users’ increasing reliance on greater mobile connectivity in the workplace and on the home front. Wireless carriers are ramping up product portfolios while handset makers are battling to push out the latest and greatest feature-rich devices.
The report also projects that Apple will drive carriers toward greater support for new and innovative third-party applications running on their networks.
Generator said Apple could provide software developers with greater access to the iPhone via APIs, while convincing wireless carriers to allow even more interactive functions on their networks. One potential application could enable new messaging capabilities between iPhones.
A demonstration of this has just been going on in this office. A publisher from San Francisco flying to Australia has been able to use his iPhone on the aircraft to send me messages about a meeting in Sydney on Monday. These have also been used to liaise with my offsider in Shanghai and another publisher in Hongkong. Previously this would have been impossible. For the record we all used iPhones. Mine was the one with the crack on the glass.
Related:
Entry was posted
on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 1:53 am
under 
Print This Post
Read more entries by Gareth Powell.
Stumble It!
