Mobile Trends - February 2011

Due to extremely high level of popularity of Apple iPad, Motorola Xoom, newly announced Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.4, the majority

of forecasts predict that 2011 will be a year of tablets.

New apps for the iPhone will use biometrics as a confirmation of the user to avoid theft from the banking accounts. So instead of

swiping a debit or credit card at the point of purchase, it will be possible to use the app to make the transaction real time.

Samsung has shown of the latest upgrade to its own smartphone operating system, the bada 2.0 platform. The upgrade 2.0 version

includes improved SDK, support for Near Field Communication (NFC), Web applications including HTML 5 and WAC, multitasking,

scalable UI - as well as voice recognition.

Google announced the launch of Google One Pass, its online charging service for newspapers and magazines. It became clear that

Google's One Pass offers better terms to content providers than Apple's App Store subscription plan.

World Mobile Congress 2011 trends

Google revealed some details of Android Honeycomb (Android 3.0). 10 new Android- based mobile smartphones were presented by

HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, LG. Apple announced the launch of the iPad 2 within next few months. HTC is preparing to launch its first

Android based tablets during the first half of the year. 2011 RIM announced plans to release two BlackBerry Playbook tablets in the second

half of this year. Despite the decrease in popularity in comparison with Android and iOS, Blackberry claims Top UK smartphone spot and

still has strong position in business sector.

Mobile Application Stores Overview

According to data from IHS, a worldwide research firm, Google's Android Market has shown the most impressive level of

development - 861.5 per cent of growth since 2009. Though the most recent researches show that Apple dominates the world of apps, not

just in terms of apps exist but also in revenue of $1.7 billion, that were generated in 2010, and the App Store now accounts for 82.7 per cent

of the market.

Store 2009, sales 2009, market share 2010, sales 2010, market share Growth

Apple App Store $769 mln 92,8% $1 billion 782 mln 82,7% 131,9%

Blackberry App World $36 mln 4,3% $165 mln 7,7% 360,3%

Nokia Ovi Store $13 mln 1,5% $105 mln 4,9% 719,4%

Google Android Market $11 mln 1,3% $102 mln 4,7% 861,5%

Total $828 mln 100% $2 billion 155 mln 100% 160,2%

Table 1. The turnover of the largest mobile application stores in 2009 and 2010

Mobile Platforms Overview

iOS is a mobile operating system running on a line of multimedia smartphones, developed by Apple corporation –

iPhone and iPad. Prior to June 2010, the operating system was known as iPhone OS. Originally developed for the iPhone, it

has since been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPod touch, iPad and Apple TV. In the last quarter of 2010,

it had a 16% share of the smartphone operating system market in terms of units sold, third behind Google's Android and

Symbian.

The user interface of iOS is based on the concept of direct manipulation, using multi-touch gestures. Interface control

elements consist of sliders, switches, and buttons. The response to user input is immediate and provides a fluid interface.

Internal accelerometers are used by some applications to respond to shaking the device (one common result is the undo command) or

rotating it in three dimensions (one common result is switching from portrait to landscape mode).

On June 7, 2010, Apple presented iPhone 4 with an updated operating system, which has some significant advantages over its

predecessors, including a more powerful CPU Apple A4, 5-megapixel camera, a camera for video (0.3 megapixels) and screen resolution of

640 × 960 pixels.

In 2008, the iPhone took second place in the ranking of the most useful modern technology according to the publication PCWorld

(English). By the end of 2010, a total of 73,5 million iPhones were sold.

Android is an open-source mobile operating system initially developed by Android Inc. In 2005 Android was

bought by Google in 2005.

Android has seen a number of updates since its original release. The most recent ones are 2.2 Gingerbread and 3.0

Honeycomb. The most popular are Android 2.0 and 2.2. As of December 2010 Google said over 300,000 Android phones

were being activated daily, up from 100,000 per day in May 2010.

Canalys reported that in Q4 2010 the Android O.S. was the world's best-selling smartphone platform, dethroning

Nokia's Symbian from the 10-year top position. There are currently over 200,000 apps available for Android.

BlackBerry OS is a proprietary mobile operating system, developed by Research In Motion (RIM) for its

BlackBerry line of smartphone devices. BlackBerry smartphones functions as a personal digital assistant with address

book, push email and a portable media player. BlackBerry OS provides multitasking and supports specialized input devices

that have been adopted by RIM for use in its handhelds, particularly the trackwheel, trackball, and most recently, the

trackpad and touchscreen.

The BlackBerry platform is best known for its native support for corporate email, which allows complete wireless

activation and synchronization with Microsoft Exchange email, calendar, tasks, notes, and contacts, when used in

conjunction with BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The operating system also supports WAP 1.2.

The latest GSM BlackBerry models (8100, 8300 and 8700 series) have an Intel PXA 930 624 MHz processor, 256 MB flash memory

and 265 MB CDRAM. The CDMA Bold 9650 is the first to have 512MB flash memory for applications. All currently manufactured

BlackBerrys support up to 32GB microSD cards.

BlackBerry commands a 14.8% share of worldwide smartphone sales, making it the fifth most popular device manufacturer. The

consumer BlackBerry Internet Service is available in 91 countries worldwide on over 500 mobile service operators using various mobile

technologies.

Windows Phone 7 is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile

platform. With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft offers a new user interface with its design language named Metro, integrates the

operating system with 3rd party and other Microsoft services. Microsoft unveiled Windows Phone 7 on February 15, 2010, at

Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona. Windows Phone 7 features a version of Internet Explorer Mobile, "People hub" for

organizing contacts, "Office hub" for organizing all Microsoft Office programs and documents.

On October 11, 2010, Microsoft announced 10 devices operating Windows Phone 7, made by HTC, Dell, Samsung,

and LG. On January 26, 2011 Microsoft stated that in the 4th quarter of 2010 it had been sold more than 2 million Windows

Phone 7 devices. On 11 February 2011, Microsoft and Nokia announced that WP 7 would become the primary smartphone

operating system for Nokia.

Symbian – is an open source operating system and software platform designed for smartphones and maintained

by Nokia. The Symbian platform is the successor to Symbian OS and Nokia Series 60. Symbian includes a user interface

component based on S60 5th Edition. The latest version, Symbian 3, was officially released in Q4 2010, first used in the

Nokia N8. Symbian OS was originally developed by Symbian Ltd, which was bought in 2008 by Nokia. Symbian runs

exclusively on ARM processors, although an unreleased x86 port existed. On February 11, 2011, Nokia announced that it

would migrate away from Symbian to Windows Phone 7.

Devices based on Symbian accounted for 43.5% of worldwide smartphone sales in 2010 Q2. Some estimates indicate that the

cumulative number of mobile devices shipped with the Symbian OS up to the end of Q2 2010 is 385 million. Symbian's market share

dropped further in 4Q 2010 to 32.6 percent, says Gartner.

Platform Apps in

Market

Strong points Weak points Users

(4Q 2010)

Target

audience

Devices

iOS 355 000 - user-friendly interface, high quality

camera performance and screen resolutions

- closed system with free components

- simplicity of usage

- multitasking

- high cost

- software inflexibility

- installing applications is only possible

through App Store review

46,598 thousands of

units

15.7% of worldwide

sales to end users

Stylish young

people, early

adopters,

business users,

well-off people

iPhone 4,

iPhone 3GS

iPad, iPod touch

Android

150 000 - open source OS

- full integration with Google services

- great number of applications

- fairly inexpensive

- heavily dependent on the availability of

Internet connection

- issues with office files from Microsoft

67,224

thousands of units

22.7% of

worldwide sales to

end users

Mass audience,

young people,

early adopters

Galaxy S, HTC

Desire, Droid,

Nexus One,

Nexus S, HTC

Hero

Blackberry

25 000

- is an encrypted military-grade security

platform

- strong in corporate deployment

- excellent work with office files and

corporate email services

- instant e-mail delivery

- ability to view the content of social

networks through the RSS-client

- relatively high cost of "inputs" to make

full use of all functions (including the

security of communication)

- low number of applications at the

Market Place

47,451 thousands of

units

16 % of worldwide

sales to end users

Business users

More in the

USA (~65%)

Blackberry

Torch, Style,

Curve, Pearl,

Storm

Windows

Phone7

7 000 - office files and e-mail service based on

the decisions of Microsoft

- unique Metro style interface

- multi-touch display (with the recognition

of at least four multi-touch)

- no compatibility with older versions of

software for WM 6.x and earlier

2,000 thousands of

units

2.8% of worldwide

sales to end users

Accustomed to

Windows

Mobile users (or

Nokia users);

early adopters.

HTC - Pro,

Surround,

Trophy, Mozart,

Omnia, Focus,

Quantum,

Optimus, HD

Symbian 18 000 - widely spread

- relatively cheap

- poor quality of navigation, support for

higher resolutions screen, stability and

performance.

- outdated user interface

111,576 thousands

of units

37.6 % worldwide

sales to end users

Accustomed to

Nokia users,

mass audience

Nokia 5800,

5530, 5230,

X3, X6, N97,

C3

Table 2. Mobile platforms comparison

Useful links

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1543014 - Worldwide Mobile Device Sales Reached 1.6 Billion Units in 2010;

http://www.wirelessindustrynews.org/news-feb-2011/2392-021411-win-news.html - RIM to launch two more playbooks in June 2010;

http://mwc2011.techradar.com/2011/01/mobile-world-congress-2011-what-to-expect/ - Mobile World Congress 2011, overview;

http://mashable.com/2011/01/31/android-most-popular-platform/- Android is said to be the most popular smartphone platform;

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/47952.php - Samsung Upgrades its Smartphone Operating System;

http://cellphoneszoom.com/nokia/the-mobile-app-store-belongs-not-only-to-apple-in-2010 - Mobile stores dynamics;

http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Gartner-IDC-and-ComScore-4Q-smartphone-reports/ - Mobile trends.