Mobile Market Analysis

Currently Mobile Device business is very interesting business. Based on the survey, Smart Phones has 22% of mobile market. Market demands of mobile device are influenced by several factors, such as:

1. Form Factor and Easy to use, An easily overlooked factor, ease of use - in terms of both hardware form factor and user interface - can be critical to the success or otherwise of a mobile device roll-out, according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. users and systems integrators. Get it wrong and users may be inclined to leave their device at home. Major savings in terms of technical support, administration and end-user operations can be achieved using devices with simple to understand, user-friendly interfaces, something that has long been a trademark of Palm OS. This fact was reflected in Gartner's findings that Palm OS-powered devices produced a lower TCO (1) (Total Cost of Ownership) The cost of using a computer. It includes the cost of the hardware, software and upgrades as well as the cost of the inhouse staff and/or consultants that provide training and technical support. See ROI. than their Pocket PC-based rivals, with their desktop-derived user interface. Devices fall broadly into two categories, PDA-style, usually with a pen-based touch screen, or mobile handset-style, with alphanumeric alphanumeric (ăl'fənmĕr`ĭk) or alphameric (ăl'fəmĕr`ĭk), the set of letters and numbers. keypad and usually a smaller display. PDA-style models are generally better suited to more intensive use as data devices, with those sporting a built-in miniature Qwerty "thumbpad", such as RIM's BlackBerry and Palm's Tungsten W and C, offering advantages in terms of faster data entry over software-based "virtual" keyboards. On the user interface side, Microsoft has toned down its efforts to make Pocket PC a mobile clone of desktop Windows, but still lacks the simplicity and user friendliness of the Palm OS interface. In general, features in Palm OS require fewer "clicks" to access compared with their Microsoft counterparts. Nokia with Series 60 has attempted to apply mobile phone thinking to the user interface, making it as intuitive as possible and hiding the intricacies of its PDA origins. The UIQ interface from Symbian, however, has met some criticism for lacking intuitiveness, especially as regards configuration, but in truth probably falls somewhere between Palm OS and Pocket PC in terms of complexity. RIM's implementation of Sun's J2ME has helped it maintain a very simple and intuitive interface while also allowing it to extend the functionality of its BlackBerry devices. The system's all-in-one nature and push functionality also serve to make it a user favorite. However, the apparent simplicity of the BlackBerry system may also be its undoing where more complex applications than those for which J2ME is currently prepared are required.
2. Application availability - application development, The availability of commercial applications for mobile devices is less of a concern in the corporate than the consumer market due to the more specific purposes for which corporate mobile applications are likely to be used. Where specific functionality is needed, new applications can be built from the ground up, either in house, if resources are available, or by systems integrators, where they are not. Software development kits (SDKs) are available for all of the key mobile operating systems Operating systems can be categorized by technology, ownership, licensing, working state, usage, and by many other characteristics. In practice, many of these groupings may overlap. , as are standalone stand·a·lone adj.Self-contained and usually independently operating: a standalone computer terminal. integrated development environmentsSee IDE. integrated development environment - interactive development environment ..... Click the link for more information. (IDEs) from specialists such as Motorola subsidiary Metrowerks. Thus, while Palm OS currently dominates in terms of the number of commercial applications available, and Pocket PC is rapidly growing its base, corporate users should not use this as a basis for choosing which device is most appropriate for their needs. Unsurprisingly, given its pedigree as a vendor of IDEs for its desktop and server Windows environments (1) (upper case "W") Refers to computers running under a Microsoft Windows operating system.(2) (lower case "w") Also called a "windowing environment," it refers to any software that provides multiple windows on screen such as Windows, Mac, Motif and X Window. , Microsoft scores highly for integration of its mobile device tools into its Visual Studio IDE. This integration has now grown tighter with the launch of the latest Visual Studio .NET A suite of programming languages and development tools from Microsoft that supports the .NET environment. Upon its introduction in 2001, it included Visual C# and .NET versions of Visual Basic and Visual C++. See .NET. 2003, which integrates not only the SDKs for Pocket PC devices It may never be fully completed or, depending on its its nature, it may be that it can never be completed. However, new and revised entries in the list are always welcome. This is a list of Pocket PC and Windows CE devices, and companies that make, or have made, them. but also the programming model between different Windows environments, through Microsoft's common runtime model, the .NET Framework. This has been applied to Pocket PC devices in the shape of the .NET Compact Framework, which is now available for Pocket PC hardware, from the 200 version and up. Although the principle is not yet proven, the synergies between the various Microsoft platforms may prove to be an important consideration where Microsoft development skills are commonplace. This is not to say that Microsoft programming skills are of no use where other mobile device platforms are concerned. Palm OS and Symbian OS, for instance, are based on C/C C/C Center to CenterC/C Combustion ChamberC/C Command/ControlC/C Crew ChiefC/C cabin cruiser (US DoD)C/C chief complaint (medical)C/C Channel-to-ChannelC/C Communication and Collaboration ++ and C++ respectively, enabling a good deal of crossover if not the tight integration offered in a purely Microsoft environment. To some extent, this oversight can be healed through the adoption of cross-platform programming environments, such as Sun's J2ME or PersonalJava, both of which follow a similar basic programming paradigmA programming paradigm is a fundamental style of programming regarding how solutions to problems are to be formulated in a programming language. (Compare with a methodology, which is a style of solving specific software engineering problems). ..... Click the link for more information. to their desktop and server Java counterparts. Most of today's high-end mobile devices are either equipped out of the box with a Java virtual machine A Java interpreter. The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is software that converts the Java intermediate language (bytecode) into machine language and executes it. The original JVM came from the JavaSoft division of Sun. or allow for a JVM See Java Virtual Machine. JVM - Java Virtual Machine to be installed later. Specialist tools from vendors such as AppForge may also play a role here. AppForge's MobileVB enables mobile applications to be written in Visual Basic, thereby tapping into the largest pool of developer skills in existence today. These are then executed on a mobile device using appropriate AppForge Booster runtime software. AppForge Booster licenses are currently available for most Palm OS and Pocket PC devices, as well as Nokia's 9200 series Communicators and Sony Ericsson's P800, both of which are available without charge.
3. Battery life and other performance issues, For many businesses, battery life is at least as great an issue when buying mobile devices as the ability to integrate with back-end systems. A bare minimum requirement must be that a device is able to perform at least a full day's usage, including time spent accessing wireless networks. This latter factor represents a particular bone of contention at the present time with few devices to date able to access WWAN See wireless WAN. or WLAN wireless data networks for an extended period of time (Bluetooth was designed with power consumption in mind and represents less of a problem). This has frequently led to device manufacturers seeking a compromise between networking and computing power, trading off some of the latter to increase the former. This is most apparent in Palm's GPRS-enabled Tungsten W, which eschewed the latest 32-bit Palm OS 5 and its higher specification hardware requirements to extend the battery life of the device as far as possible. However, Palm has now also provided evidence that the higher specification hardware and OS need not compromise battery life too much. Research carried out by VeriTest on behalf of Palm reported the Tungsten C achieving 3 hours 45 minutes of battery life with its WLAN radio switched on while a similarly specified HP iPaq 5450 Pocket PC managed only 2 hours 10 minutes. A "screen-on" test, with display permanently on at full brightness, also revealed considerable differences, the Tungsten C managing 8 hours 9 minutes, the iPaq 5450 just 2 hours 27 minutes. Application performance also varies widely. For example, Palm's device showed considerable performance benefits over the iPaq 5450 in terms of internet page rendering over WLAN, averaging 11.69 seconds compared with 28.02 seconds for HP's device. The inference is that Palm OS devices It may never be fully completed or, depending on its its nature, it may be that it can never be completed. However, new and revised entries in the list are always welcome.This is a list of Palm OS devices, and companies that make, or have made, them. are able to make better use of their hardware than their Pocket PC equivalents. Symbian OS devices, with their mobile phone heritage, also tend to offer a good compromise between performance and battery life. Sony Ericsson's P800, for instance, is claimed to give 13 hours of talk time and 400 hours of standby, although its data-mode capabilities are less well defined. RIM's BlackBerry devices, too, are well known for very long battery life, a result of their relatively low hardware specification.
4. Integration with corporate applications, Another essential consideration when buying mobile computing devices for corporate deployment is the ease with which devices can be integrated with corporate data sources. Several levels of integration are likely to be important to enterprise mobile device users, including email/collaboration software support, document support, internet/intranet access and integration with enterprise applications such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) An integrated information system that serves all departments within an enterprise. Evolving out of the manufacturing industry, ERP implies the use of packaged software rather than proprietary software written by or for one customer. , CRM (Customer Relationship Management) An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization. , sales force automation and field services software. In general, access to major systems should be possible using any device considered in this report, whether through out-of-the-box integration with popular applications and servers or through third-party connectivity products, broadly described as mobile middleware. Oracle, for instance, offers an almost complete mobility package across most of its products, while Microsoft and IBM Many people are too new to the computer industry to remember that IBM once occupied the lofty position that Microsoft currently enjoys. Today, it's a Microsoft versus The Rest of the World computer industry. Yesterday, it was IBM versus everybody else. Lotus are extending the degree of built-in mobile device support for their email servers See mail server. . However, a degree of bespoke be·spoke v.Past tense and a past participle of bespeak.adj.1. Custom-made. Said especially of clothes.2. Making or selling custom-made clothes: a bespoke tailor. integration work may be required in some cases, especially where particular device platforms are not (yet) natively supported. Naturally, different devices have strengths in different areas. RIM's BlackBerry epitomizes tight integration with corporate email servers, and is now opening up its server product to non-RIM devices, although startup rival Good Technology claims to have acquired a number of RIM's customers with its similar GoodLink offering. Palm OS is felt by many users to handle Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft's primary desktop applications for Windows and Mac. Depending on the package, it includes some combination of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook along with various Internet and other utilities. ..... Click the link for more information. documents particularly well, care of the Documents To Go software from DataViz, bundled as standard with Palm's own Tungsten devices. Meanwhile, Symbian devices arguably ar·gu·a·ble adj.1. Open to argument: an arguable question, still unresolved.2. That can be argued plausibly; defensible in argument: three arguable points of law. have the lead in internet support, through the availability of Opera Software's highly capable web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. , which is able to reformat (1) To change the record layout of a file or database.(2) To initialize a disk over again. most web pages to the display characteristics of the device while avoiding the need for horizontal scrolling. Neither Palm's nor Microsoft's mobile browser A mobile browser (earlier referred to as a microbrowser or minibrowser) is a web browser designed for use on a mobile device such as a mobile phone or PDA. Mobile browsers are optimised so as to display Web content most effectively for small screens on portable applications are yet on a par with Opera. Microsoft-based devices still lead on overall back-end connectivity, however, care of the early lead of Pocket PC in the corporate space and the US-centricity of the software market, overall. Most, if not all, wireless connectivity offerings, whether native or third-party in origin favor Pocket PC over other device platforms, with Palm OS also popular. Symbian OS support is less often provided at the time of writing although this is beginning to change as the devices proliferate.
5. Expandability and peripheral support, The ability to expand both the software and hardware capabilities of enterprise mobile devices is another important consideration when choosing suitable models, with under-specified models potentially compromising the life span of the device in a corporate environment. Lack of memory space for additional applications and data out of the box is likely to be the initial point of concern, here. Some devices, such as Sony Ericsson's P800, Palm's Tungsten T and W and RIM's BlackBerry, offer 16MB or less of expansion space compared with many Microsoft Pocket PCs, which can sport as much 128MB of additional memory. This differential needs to be placed in context, however, with the footprint of data and applications considerably smaller in non-Microsoft devices, especially RIM's J2ME basis. Of more concern is the ability to extend memory, and other capabilities, through hardware expansion. Most devices now sport a Secure Digital (SD)/MultiMedia Card (MMC See MultiMediaCard and Microsoft Management Console. ) slot, which can cater for up to 512MB of additional memory at the time of writing, as well as additional hardware capabilities such as Bluetooth connectivity and a digital camera. At least one example of a WLAN SD card, from SyChip, also exists. Others, notably Toshiba and Dell (the latter not considered in this analysis), also offer a Compact Flash (CF) card slot A socket for inserting a printed circuit board or a PC Card (CardBus card). See PC Card. , an older and larger format but one offering the greatest expansion potential. 3GB CF cards are penciled in for release this year and the slot may also be used for a range of other upgrades, including WLAN, Bluetooth, Global Positioning System Global Positioning System: see navigation satellite. Global Positioning System (GPS)Precise satellite-based navigation and location system originally developed for U.S. military use. (GPS), digital cameras and others. Prices also tend to be considerably lower than for equivalent SD cards. Buyers should be aware, however, that non memory-oriented SD and CF cards tend only to be compatible with Pocket PC devices due to a current lack of support by vendors for other platforms. One exception to the general expansion card rule is Sony Ericsson, which limits the expansion possibilities for its P800 smart phone to a 16MB Memory Stick Duo See Memory Stick. , the largest capacity currently available for this proprietary flash memory card format from Sony. This choice, while no doubt made in the interests of keeping a small form factor (Memory Stick Duo is physically the smallest Flash memory card format currently available) could prove problematic if the device is intended to carry large amounts of data. A similar argument can be made for RIM's BlackBerry devices, which lack expansion slots A receptacle inside a computer or other electronic system that accepts a printed circuit board. The number of slots determines future expansion. See PC data buses. (hardware) expansion slot - A connector in a computer into which an expansion card can be plugged. of any sort. Expansion need not be in the form of memory card slots, however. HP, for instance, continues to support the "sled" concept introduced with Compaq's original iPaq. These sleds can offer any of the expansion capabilities of SD or CF cards, and also stretch to novel expansion possibilities, such as video recording or PCMCIA cards See PC Card. for notebook PCs. Also worthy of note is the popular add-on of a full- or almost full-sized Qwerty mobile keyboard or Qwerty thumbpad for times when a large amount of data entry is required. These are available from a number of vendors, often including the device manufacturers themselves, with options available for the vast majority of PDA-style devices. Smart phone-type devices are only just beginning to be supported with a roll-up fabric keyboard now available for the Orange SPV The original Orange SPV Smartphone was built by HTC for the European mobile operator, Orange. Powered by Microsoft Smartphone 2002, and launched late 2002, SPV stood for Sound, Pictures, Video, with the emphasis being on the devices multimedia capabilities and potential. Windows Smartphone from Ora in the UK. Infrared wireless keyboard vendor Pocketop is thought to be considering support for Sony Ericsson's P800 in future software drivers.
6. Wireless access, Wireless data access, with or without voice capability, should be seen as a defining characteristic of enterprise-class wireless devices, enabling them to communicate more freely with other systems and overcoming their dependence on synchronizing synchronizing,n a technique that a therapist uses to coordinate his or her breath with that of the client; builds trust and establishes relationship. with desktop systems via a cable to become useful tools. Which form of wireless connectivity for mobile devices is most appropriate depends on the proposed usage pattern. Field service and sales force operatives, for example, are most likely - at least at this point in time--to require access via a WWAN, such as GPRS, giving them the widest possible network coverage and therefore the greatest flexibility in use. The increase in the number of smart phones, whatever the base OS, is leading to an escalation es·ca·late v. es·ca·lat·ed, es·ca·lat·ing, es·ca·latesv.tr.To increase, enlarge, or intensify: escalated the hostilities in the Persian Gulf.v.intr. in converged devices A converged device combines the functions of others. Examples: Backhoe loader Camcorder Camera phone Clock radio Combine harvester DSL router Halberd Multitool PDA phone Spork TV/VCR combo VCR/DVD combo featuring mobile phone and PDA characteristics. But among Pocket PC advocates especially, WWAN access on mobile devices is thought to be best achieved through the use of a two-piece approach, combining a Bluetooth-enabled PDA with a similarly Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone. The choice between the one- and two-piece approaches should be governed by the expected refresh (1) To continuously charge a device that cannot hold its content. CRTs must be refreshed, because the phosphors hold their glow for only a few milliseconds. Dynamic RAM chips require refreshing to maintain their charged bit patterns. See vertical scan frequency and redraw. cycle of the various pieces as much as convenience factors: one device takes up less room, two devices allows more flexibility in use. Where phone upgrades are likely to be more regular than PDA upgrades, the balance is tipped in favor of the two-piece approach, for example. In campus situations, as has long been proven in the warehousing sector, WLAN access provides both greater bandwidth and lower cost. WLAN is also increasingly the technology of choice where mobile devices are used as notebook PC replacements, the rise of public WLANs (or "hotspots") adding increasing impetus to the technology.

MARKET PROSPECT
There is currently no simple solution to choosing mobile devices, which must be made according to a complex mix of technical and business requirements. For users, a simple rule of thumb is to at least shorten the list of possible choices according to perceived data entry requirements. Broadly speakingAdv. 1. broadly speaking - without regard to specific details or exceptions; "he interprets the law broadly"broadly, generally, loosely ..... Click the link for more information., three kinds of company can be identified. The first treats mobility as an expense and is mainly voice focused. Basic mobile phones, perhaps with basic J2ME productivity applications are probably sufficient here although greater functionality will gradually sediment down into these devices, possibly provoking a change of strategy once these capabilities are present. Second are businesses that see mobile devices as an opportunity, especially for mobilizing personal productivity tools such as email and calendar. In general, such organizations may opt for phone-style smart devices, such as Series 60 or Windows Smartphone models, where computing power is offset against size and convenience. Third are enterprises that have made the key business decision to mobilize database-driven systems and require powerful end-to-end approaches, including devices with optimal data entry capabilities, large displays and the greatest rage of connectivity options. Of the high-profile offerings, RIM appears to offer the advantage of tight back-end integration, overall functionality and long battery life, while Microsoft and its OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and partners provide a familiar interface and very high technical specifications. Palm and its operating system licensees, on the other hand, boast considerable battery life and exceptional ease of use. Symbian, while still a relatively unknown quantity, seems set to provide a combination of these factors, as well as the intrinsic tight convergence between voice and data functionality. Apart from the obvious problems in integrating numerous device variants into the back end, there remain considerable difficulties in providing technical support to a range of devices that, while they may boast similar functionality, work in quite different ways. More prosaic factors, such as ease of use - in terms of user interface and data entry method - and battery life also remain crucial selection criteria. To date, none of the widely available products meet all of these requirements. But while the choices may still be complex, the fundamental reasons for using mobile data-enabled handheld devices are now well established.

Source:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/
http://www.letsgomobile.org/