Some impressive mobile phone product launches between now and the year-end will help the world’s mobile handset markets finish 2008 with strong sales, according to ABI Research.
Spurred on by the launch of Apple’s second-generation iPhone, rival handset vendors such as RIM, Nokia and Samsung are also expected to debut new models in the second half of 2008.
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As the iPhone notches up one million sales Palm and HP launch their latest smartphones with a little less fanfare.
With hardly a whimper Palm’s Treo 800w and Hewlett-Packard’s iPaQ 910 have been released on to a smartphone market still largely focussed on Friday’s iPhone launch.
They will be held up against Apple’s latest handset, which is now available in 21 countries and will go on sale in France on July 17.
The opening of Apple’s online App Store to coincide with the launch of the new iPhone could herald seismic changes in the mobile phone market.
At least that’s what Steve Jobs, the Apple founder, is hoping.
He sees the online applications store as an attempt to do for mobile applications – games, reference guides and other software – what Apple’s iTunes Store has done for music.
While rivals may bristle at his comments, Jobs is clear about his goal.
Rhythm NewMedia, a leader in mobile video, has announced the availability of the free vSNAX Videos native iPhone application on the Apple App Store.
vSNAX Videos promises to deliver mobile video clips to iPhone and iPod touch users from more than 20 premium media partners including AccuWeather.com, Ford Models, Ripe TV, and MTV Networks’ VH1, Spike and GameTrailers.
The Apple 3G iPhone will change the mobile behaviour of users and alter consumer expectations for phone capabilities.
That’s according to a report by analysts Nielsen Mobile which looks at the worldwide state of the mobile web.
The study says that its growth is due to a combination of increasing numbers of user friendly handsets, higher speed networks and unlimited data packages.
It then goes on to describe the mobile web as having reached a “critical mass” of users this year.
But it singles out the iPhone – despite being the second most popular device among mobile users in the US after Motorola’s RAZR – for special mention.
The function-packed Apple iPhone 3G may about to be released to the world but many consumers say they just want a mobile that’s a phone
Clint Wheelock, vice president and chief research officer for ABI Research, said: “It’s still a voice-centric world. Consumers across all mature markets still choose their mobile operator based on ‘the basics’: price, friends/family on the same network, and network coverage.”
A report from ABI Research shows that cameras, Bluetooth, and music top consumers’ lists as “must have” features on mobile phones.
BY 2015 nobody will refer to “high definition” TV because HD will be the standard form of free television everywhere.
But the HD broadcast offering in Europe will largely remain patchy during the intervening transition period, according to a report by Screen Digest.
The study says HDTV will mainly develop as a pay TV product in Europe over the next five years – and mostly as a satellite product.
South Korean regulations requiring handset applications to be based on a homegrown technology are largely why the country’s mobile phone market is dominated by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.
As a result of the WIPI ruling – the acronym stands for wireless internet platform for interoperability – foreign companies have found it too expensive to produce handsets tailored for South Korean consumers.
Nokia is virtually absent in the country and Motorola is a minor competitor with less than 5 per cent of the market. Apple has kept its iPhone out of the market because of the WIPI rule.
Yet international handset makers are keen to enter South Korea, one of the world’s most technologically advanced and expensive telecoms markets.
Now President Lee Myung-bak’s newly elected government has expressed a willingness to soften the WIPI rule, potentially opening the door to foreign handset makers.
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As pricing details continue to emerge about the new iPhone, one analyst estimates that Apple stands to make more from each device than previously thought.
Gene Munster, of investment bank Piper Jaffray, said that AT&T’s complete official pricing for iPhone 3G units suggests Apple is making more from the reportedly abundant iPhone stock than estimated in the past.
Although the US$199 starting price is much lower for the customers themselves, the US$599 pay-as-you-go price suggests that the carrier subsidy cuts much deeper.
If so, then this hides potentially greater profits for Apple, which could be asking US$500 for each iPhone versus an earlier estimate of US$425.
“This discrepancy leads us to believe our [average selling price] is conservative,” said Munster.
The analyst said that a change of this level would boost Apple’s revenue for 2009 by eight per cent.
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Nokia may still be the world’s leading mobile phone supplier but it’s been toppled from its pedestal when it comes to phone cases.
Krusell, the Swedish manufacturer of carrying cases for portable electronics, has released its “Top 10” – list for June 2008.
The list is based upon the number of pieces of model specific mobile and smartphone cases that have been ordered from the company during June 2008.
Its chart is unique, according to Krusell, due to the fact that it reflects the sales of phones on six continents and in more than 50 countries around the globe.