bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Analysts predict mass acceptance by 2007 for mobiles with PDA functions

Smartphones are emerging from being a niche item and are heading into the mainstream market, according to research firm International Data Corp.

IDC said the global market for mobile phones with personal digital assistant (PDA) functions had tripled against last year.

Overall, 118 million mobiles were shipped last quarter, of which almost two  million were smartphones.

'We foresee that by 2007, 75 per cent of all mobile phones would be of the converged variety with a major segment from the smartphones category,' said Manny Lopez, handheld analyst at IDC.

Smartphones  allow for word processing, spreadsheet, e-mail and internet browsing, personal information management as well as  data synchronisation to desktop applications such as Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes.

Smart phones are growing at the expense of non-connected PDAs which will record the second consecutive  year of decline  this year, down 8.4 per cent to 11.35 million units, according to IDC forecasts.

Second-quarter shipment figures for PDA phones show a growth which more than trebles that of the same quarter last year.

The converged handheld devices - or smart phones market - makes up 1.7 per cent of the  mobile phone market, compared to 0.5 per cent in the same quarter a year ago, according to IDC.

'Smartphones are growing considerably fast out here, though from a small base. Just counting voice-centric converged devices - smartphones with a phone-like form factor - year on year growth was up 30 per cent, while pen-based units decreased by 38 per cent,' Mr Lopez said.

With its 61 per cent share, Nokia continues to dominate in converged devices, trailed far behind by Sony Ericsson and Motorola with a 10.2 and 5.6 per cent share respectively, according to the report.

Research in Motion ranks fourth with 4.6 per cent followed by Kyocera with 2.6 per cent. Handspring slipped from the top five  due to an ageing product line based on the Palm operating system (OS).

Nokia produces converged devices such as the Nokia Communicator 9210 running the Symbian OS. Symbian competes against Microsoft and PalmSource which also have operating systems for handsets.

Mr Lopez said  Symbian,  used by Nokia and Sony Ericsson, remained the most dominant software used on smart handsets.

However, support for Microsoft's Smartphone and Windows Mobile 2003 Phone Edition operating systems  has gained momentum in the last year.

Motorola, which pulled out of the Symbian joint venture two weeks ago, is reportedly in talks with Microsoft and Orange to produce a Microsoft phone later in the year. Motorola has also produced a Linux-based phone.

Mr Lopez said a Motorola Microsoft phone might just be a one-off.

'I don't think they will be coming out with any new Microsoft powered phones after this one. Motorola will be pushing their own Java application 'Moto Juice' on these devices, this application will serve as the phone's graphic interface,' he said.

'So for Motorola, the OS is not that important to them, it will just be the engine behind their Java app, and since the Linux OS is free it makes it an ideal OS.'

Motorola leads the mainland's converged device market with 39.3 per cent market share with its Taiji product. Nokia is in second place with 37.8 per cent.

However, unit shipments of smartphones to the mainland remain small with voice-only  mobile phones making up  more than 99 per cent of the demand.



Smartphones move steadily into mainstream