14 DAY TRIAL // According to a recent report from In-Stat, the smartphone market will be influenced by the battle between different mobile operating systems available on handsets today. However, the research firm also says that the competition will soon see a shift from the OS to the functionality and user experience that come along with any mobile phone. Features like touchscreen displays, high camera resolution and Wi-Fi connectivity are only some examples of what users will be more interested in.
The research firm also states that the smartphone OS market as we know it might change in the future. Symbian is the leader on all charts, and it should remain the same over the next few years, yet In-Stat says that the shipments of Symbian-based handsets is expected to drop in 2014. While Symbian will remain dominant on a rather short term, the iPhone shipments are expected to rise quite fast, the research firm states.
“In-Stat believes new OSs such as Android and Maemo will cut away at Symbian market share,” says Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst. “Although there are relatively few open source OS-based smartphones in the market today, the open source OS momentum is difficult to ignore. After years of hype, it is easy to see that 2010 will be the year of Android.”
Other findings of the report include the fact that shipments of touchscreen-enabled handsets will double in 2009 compared to 2008, and that RIM's BlackBerry OS has seen a growth in market share in the non-enterprise segment. As for the following years, the research firm says that the total smartphone market is expected to reach 412 million units in 2014, while smartphones that include accelerometers will top 350 million units by 2014.
The “Worldwide Smartphones” research from In-Stat also shows that 52 percent of a smartphone's cost is related to displays (touch screens), baseband and app processors, and software and licensing make-up. The report also focuses on smartphone operating systems, touch screens, applications, image sensors, and wireless connectivity options, and provides forecasts on unit sales by OS by 2014, as well as previsions on sales of smartphones with touch screens, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and accelerometers. More details can be found on the firm's website.