My Expectations From The Smartphone Market
I remember when there were only handful of smartphone manufacturers out there namely HTC, Blackberry, Palm etc. I wouldn’t have considered Nokia, SE, Motorola, Samsung etc. as worthy contenders back then. No offense but, they mostly targeted the different (and way bigger) market with cost-effective do-it-all phones. They never took the business phone market that seriously. On the other hand, manufacturers like Blackberry, Palm and HTC targeted their devices to relatively very small Business phones market.
A smartphone user expects something extra, something premium from his phone. For example, all the blackberry users are most probably in love with push email (A unique feat in those days), or the Windows Mobile users want familiarity and integration to their desktop operating system. Still, smartphone OSes were not up to user’s expectations. The principle was, the more functionality you want, the more problems you get. And surprisingly enough, the smartphones had more problems than the “ordinary” phones like freezing or an occasional restart. I liked my first smartphone – HTC TyTN, a Windows Mobile device, because of the things it could do. I was simply amazed by the integration between Contacts, Phone, Email, Calendar etc. which I had never seen before. The applications, customizations you could do, widgets for weather, stocks etc. was way too cool. I never expected more from it because I couldn’t imagine the possibilities. But, I’m glad someone did.
It was Apple who set a benchmark of what a smartphone should be with its iPhone. The iPhone was not perfect but, it was much better than other competitors. People weren’t going to buy the same old crap when a much better and much more stable mobile OS existed. As the iPhone became more and more popular, other smartphone manufacturers began to lose their market. That’s when the wheels were set into motion. Shortly after that, Google jumped in and announced Open Handset Alliance and Android, a linux-based, multi-device, open source mobile operating system. Now, how could the other big players stay back and watch the show. Soon, Microsoft announced Windows Mobile 6.5, which was supposed to be the first finger-touch-friendly installment from Microsoft and Windows Mobile 7, which is supposed to be a complete redesign of the OS. Palm also announced its Linux based WebOS.
iPhone OS still holds the crown, while Palm WebOS has come and brought some impressive stuff with it. Android is also improving rapidly. Seriously hoping that Microsoft brings something solid with WinMo 7. As for now, it is impossible to tell who will dominate the market.
The last couple of years have brought major growth in smartphone market. Smartphones and PDAs are more popular than ever. New and powerful devices are introduced and older devices are becoming obsolete quickly, mostly due to powerful mobile operating systems that require more resources to run. The future of smartphones is promising. It won’t be long before they will be important part of people’s lives.
A couple of years earlier, no one could have imagined that slow and powered down notebooks a.k.a. netbooks would ever sell. Look at them now. Netbooks have fairly large market now. With longer battery life, instant-on operating systems and web-based applications, they are perfect for average internet users. In future, smartphone market also has similar potential. The idea of a tiny device which intelligently combines all possible means of communication in one can really make a person’s life easier. Today, as we can see, mobile applications sales is boosted significantly and there is still much more room for improvement. So, we can expect a larger mobile apps market in future.