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Tag: mid

  • Market for mobile touch screen worth US$5bn in 2009


    Apple’s iPhone has done much to thrust touch screens firmly into the public’s consciousness – a place they seem certain to increasingly inhabit.

    A report from ABI Research forecasts that revenue from the global touch screen market for smartphones and other handheld devices such as MIDs, UMPCs, and PNDs will reach USD $5 billion in 2009.

    Shipments of touch screen-based mobile devices increased 91 per cent in 2007 compared to the previous year.

    Yet according to Kevin Burden, research director at ABI, said nearly all mobile handset manufacturers were getting into touch screens to a greater or lesser extent.

    But he added that there were strong regional differences in the uptake of touch screens.

    The Asia/Pacific market, where more than 80 per cent of the world’s touch screen-based mobile phone production was consumed over the past year, has been a major driver in the rising demand.

    “The acceptance of touch screens to date has varied by geographic region, which has been a significant factor in determining the success of individual handset vendors,” he said.

    Samsung and Motorola have been the most successful, commanding 33 per cent and 30 per cent shares of the touch screen mobile phone market respectively.

    “Samsung and Motorola lead the market for touch screen phones primarily because of their scale and significant presence in the Asian markets,” said Burden.

    “Because it’s difficult to represent even a fraction of the common Asian characters on a QWERTY-style keyboard, touch screen devices on which characters can be written with a stylus are immensely popular.”

    At 24 per cent, Sony Ericsson has the third-largest market share, while all the other handset vendors – including Apple – are essentially niche players.

    The ABI report said that a number of factors are driving further adoption of touch screen-based mobile devices.

    *Consumers are looking for more intuitive user interfaces and personalization options as device functionality increases.

    *Prices for touch components and panels continue to decrease and are falling on an average of nearly 10 per cent per annum.

  • Smartphones and low-cost mobile phones set to see most significant growth at expense of mid-tier handsets


    The top and bottom ends of the wireless handset markets are to enjoy the best growth rates over the next five years, according to researchers.
    This will be at the expense of mid-range models, commonly called “enhanced” phones. The enhanced phone sector is currently the largest in terms of shipments, with 854 million units shipped in 2007.
    But it will be overtaken by both other classes in 2013, with just 441 million shipping.
    Kevin Burden, a director of ABI Research and author of the report “Mobile devices annual market overview”, said: “As we see more user sophistication and demand for high-end features, handset manufacturers will continue to push functions of high-level smartphone operating systems further down their product lines.
    “Their smartphone portfolios will grow, and with them, the entire smartphone market.”
    The report said this was seen as desireable by operators as well, who wanted more smartphone users because of the higher average revenue per user (ARPU) they generated.
    It added that the operators also like phones with standard operating systems that are optimised for their content delivery platforms.
    At the other end of the market, demand will be driven by the huge emerging markets in countries such as China, India, and Brazil.
    Here, the ABI report said the low-cost and ultra-low-cost handset categories were set to become the largest classes of mobile phones by 2013 in terms of shipments, though not in terms of revenue.
    “While the unit shipments of ultra-low-cost handsets will be dramatic over the forecast period, the device class is only expected to account for 6 per cent of the market’s overall revenue,” said Burden.
    “But vendors will continue to pursue these markets for the sake of brand-building and the prospect of eventual upward migration by users.”
    Since no single mobile device will serve the needs of everyone, a number of other form factors will compete for users’ mobile computing cycles.
    In particular, MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) and UMPCs (Ultra-mobile PCs) show promise for wider consumer acceptance.
    According to the ABI report, prices will be moderate (eventually under US$200 for many MIDs) and the devices wiill deliver a superior mobile Internet experience.

  • The future is bright for new breed of handheld multi-media devices pitched between the iPhone and notebook computer


    Smaller than a notebook computer with a larger screen than a Smartphone – this is how the authors of research into Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) define them.
    Consumers may still be relatively unaware of this emerging class of device, but that’s unlikely to be the case for long.
    Global sales of MIDs expected to leap from 305,000 units shipped in 2008 to a projected 40 million in 2012, generating USD12 billion in revenue.
    At least that’s the conclusion of a survey by semiconductor analysts Forward Concepts, which examined the market potential for MIDs and provided forecasts for both the devices and the integrated circuits that enable them.
    It says that MIDs will have an unprecedented level of multimedia capabilities and typically will come in a tablet-like form factor.
    “In our opinion, MIDs are not designed to replace mobile phones (or Smartphones) but to be used as companion devices,” the report states.
    “They will rival notebook computers in features and capabilities yet come in a significantly smaller, lighter, fit-into-your-coat-pocket form factor, thus spurring the birth of a whole new class of mobile multimedia devices that fall in between a Smartphone and notebook/tablet computer.”

    Titled Strategies & Insight into the Emerging Class of Mobile Internet/Multimedia Devices, the study says MIDs represent a new class of mobile communications and lifestyle devices.
    Their hardware, software and form factor will require design from the ground up in order to meet market requirements for features, price, performance, and power requirements.
    “The user interface will be key to success and will likely need to be capable of responding not only to touch-based inputs but also keep pace with other evolving input methods such as ones based on motion, gesture, placement, and so on,” the report continues.
    “Although Apple’s 3G iPhone ploughs new ground in internet access, user interaction and utility, we don’t consider it to be a MID, since we believe a true MID also requires a larger (4- to 6-inch) screen with higher resolution (VGA), TV out and optional Mobile TV capabilities.”
    Integrated circuits for MIDs are forecast to grow from USD 29 million in 2008 to USD 2.6 billion in 2012, with Texas Instruments and Qualcomm described by the survey as being the two best-positioned non-X86 semiconductor vendors for supplying stand-alone applications processors for all classes of MIDs.
    It says Intel has a much better shot at UMPCs, being predominantly an enterprise play, where x86 compatibility is important, and with battery life expectations in line with notebooks.