Smartphone Sales To Surpass Handheld Sales In Europe

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=9353106">http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=9353106</a><br /><br />"In its "EMEA Mobile Device Trends 2003" report, research company Canalys predicted that about 3.3 million smartphones will be sold in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region this year, compared to just 2.8 million wireless handhelds."<br /><br />Now that Smartphones are shipping from various vendors with the Symbian and MS Smartphone OS, consumers seem to be snapping them up. So should handheld OEMs counter with a new round of converged devices?<br /><br />"The researchers also said that the makers of handheld devices would be unwise to try to counter the smartphone boom by launching new wireless handhelds because so far, only few such devices have sold. "Vendors should only launch wireless handhelds if they can differentiate themselves substantially from the devices that are already out there," Buss said. He said a better strategy would be to focus on integrated Bluetooth in handsets and PDAs, if manufacturers want to capture the largest slice of the market possible."<br /><br />It was a close poll, but our readers seemed to <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10294">prefer the two device world</a>. There's <a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=8515">more info here</a>. I expect the same to happen in North America once Smartphones become available - especially on the CDMA networks. Just give me a Bluetooth radio!

[surur]

Call this a hunch, but I'm guessing that there is going to be 10's of millions of people with very advanced smartphones who only bought them for the pose factor, and have no idea how to exploit the power in their hands. Kind of like giving a super laptop to your VP, knowing he can only use Word. I wonder what percentage of e.g Nokia 7650 users have installed java games for example.

On the other hand I guess its up to the manufactures and networks to make these devices easy to use with compelling content. At the same time there's going to be a huge number of people that can only use the phone book.

Just my 2c

Surur

[Ed Hansberry]

I think once there are enough out there, you will see sites like Yahoo, MSN and AOL provide rich content like movie listings, directions, etc. Sort of like the chicken and egg - no devices, no reason for content. No content, no reason to buy a device. I hope the "pose" factor you mention will get people to buy them.