Mobile Phones
To understand what is being prepared for 2009, we first of all have to look at what took place in 2008, and this was a year that was full of changes. Of course, the iPhone had its own privileged place in the hand sets department, thanks to its ability to change the perception and notions of what is a smartphone. But other questions came through in 2008, like the health effects of electromagnetic waves from mobile telephones, the awarding of the fourth 3G license in France and even the emergence of the developmental NFC services. The first part of this retrospective will cover the period between January and June 2008.
A change in the distribution model for the iPhone
In May we saw quite a lot of activity with incidents relating to the launch of the 3G iPhone multiplying under the new distribution conditions. After the four markets open to the 2G iPhone and its exclusive carriers, the strategy at Apple changed.
The first phase, which was to position the mobile on the market, was a success. Apple succeeded in getting their iPhone in people’s hands thanks to its exceptional character. They now needed to widen the scope to get a larger distribution.
Vodaphone announced their intention to commercialize the iPhone in a dozen countries, by trying to explain what the 3G iPhone was even before it was born. A few days later, the distribution scheme for the Asia-Pacific zone was unveiled. Orange then revealed that iPhone would be present in eleven of their markets.
The HTC Touch Diamond is released as an ambush
Like in 2007, the Taiwanese group HTC couldn’t resist the temptation of presenting their leading product to take on the iPhone. With the HTC Touch Diamond, an offensive is launched towards the general public.
With the TouchFLO 3D software layer offering a wide range of functions, in a compact format and with a lot of different technologies, the smartphone also has a lot of different facets. The design was now ready for different launches.
Unfortunately, the tactile interface wasn’t always as fluid as hoped, and the battery was limited at 900 mAh, reducing its use time for all of the onboard functions. Despite this, the HTC Touch Diamond was the first in a series of handsets which continue to be released with more and more functions, like the HTC Touch Pro with its sliding keyboard and the HTC Touch HD which seems to be the end of the series, but we wouldn’t see this until later in the year…
A cold spell moves over mobile phones sales
The financial crisis which started in the United States in the summer of 2007 had until now spared the telecommunications industry. But it was during May 2008 that the first clues started to come through that things were perhaps not all rosy in the mobile telecommunications sector.
The study group NPD Group noticed that the sales of mobile phones in the United States had dwindled by 22% in the first quarter of the year, the first time this had been seen since records about the sector have been kept. At this time people start to talk about users hesitating about changing their devices.
Not all segments are affected. Locally, smartphones see some comfortable gains. Motorola also remains the market leader in the United States, but only for a few more months.
Ten days later, Gartner sees the same results in Europe: -16.4% with Sony Ericsson selling hardly any middle of the range handsets while Texas Instruments anticipates a reduction in revenue following the cancellation of a large contract by Nokia.
Organization starts for the NFC payment method
The NFC technology (Near Field Communications) promised an explosion of no contract payment services via your mobile phone. Experiments have already revealed the interest surrounding this option for carriers, banks and shops.
But everyone has been working a little independently, which has slowed the development and cohesion for future services. Numerous initiatives were therefore launched in May to bring together the different forces. It was at this time that the Forum for mobile services without contract was created under the initiative of Luc Chatel, the secretary for Industry and Consummation, so that all of the major players would work on common projects.
There was also an alliance created between carriers in the French Association for no Contract Mobile (AFSCM) with the three French carriers sharing their experimental information surrounding the NFC technology.
We now have to wait for the compatible hand sets…
TMP: 16 names for the 16 Mobile TV channels
After having chosen the DVB-H format, the candidates for MPT (Mobile Personal Television) were designated by the CSA. Each candidate handed in a submission and 13 names were chosen for the 13 channels that will firstly be made available, while 3 additional channels will be reserved for public broadcasting.
16 names, 16 channels, but relatively little difference when compared to other broadcast channels. Will this be enough to attract users while waiting for the next round of licenses? We now just need to wait and see what will be offered for broadcast so that an economical model can be drawn up.
Between the transmitters who want the carriers to take responsibility for the essential costs for the network broadcast, and the carriers who want to control the access, it appears that swords are only just being crossed. In December 2008, this debate is still far from being resolved.
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| Mobile Games, November 2008 | A retrospective on the mobile field 2008 - Part two |
May 26th, 2013 - 12:18 AM ET
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