Asia Hotbed for 3G Mobile Data

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3512605&thesection=business&thesubsection=telecommunications&thesecondsubsection=mobile&thetickercode=

"The Land of the Rising Sun is likely to be the hotbed for third-generation mobile development over the next five years and researchers are presenting forecasts for the Japanese market reminiscent of the overblown mobile frenzy of 2000. The latest research, from analyst group IDC, estimates Japan will have 69 million 3G subscribers by 2007, accounting for 78 per cent of the entire mobile market of 80 million subscribers."

The part that interested me the most, though, was the market share prediction:

"Looking at mobile operating systems in an increasingly 3G world, IDC expects Symbian to take its share of the market from 46 per cent today to 53 per cent by 2006, Microsoft's smartphone software eventually giving it 27 per cent of the market and Palm holding 10 per cent."

Market share predictions are always fun to watch - do you think this is accurate? Will the Smartphone go from 0% to 27% in three years? A lot can happen in three years - look what happened with the Pocket PC from April 2000 (launch) until now.

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3512605&thesection=business&thesubsection=telecommunications&thesecondsubsection=mobile&thetickercode=

"The Land of the Rising Sun is likely to be the hotbed for third-generation mobile development over the next five years and researchers are presenting forecasts for the Japanese market reminiscent of the overblown mobile frenzy of 2000. The latest research, from analyst group IDC, estimates Japan will have 69 million 3G subscribers by 2007, accounting for 78 per cent of the entire mobile market of 80 million subscribers."

The part that interested me the most, though, was the market share prediction:

"Looking at mobile operating systems in an increasingly 3G world, IDC expects Symbian to take its share of the market from 46 per cent today to 53 per cent by 2006, Microsoft's smartphone software eventually giving it 27 per cent of the market and Palm holding 10 per cent."

Market share predictions are always fun to watch - do you think this is accurate? Will the Smartphone go from 0% to 27% in three years? A lot can happen in three years - look what happened with the Pocket PC from April 2000 (launch) until now.