Smartphones: the tipping point's coming

31-03-2010

by Ralph Averbuch

Smartphones are slated to be at 50pc of the market by the third quarter of 2011

If there was any doubt that we're moving to a smarter mobile web then this latest graph from Business Insider paints a pretty clear picture. It pinpoints the third quarter of 2011 as the point at which there will be as many people in the US using smartphones as feature phones (or as we like to call them, dum-dum phones). And where the US leads the rest of the us will undoubtedly follow. The networks are going to be enthusiastic proponents of smartphones, whose users consume more web, more data and more services on the move. (Mind you, there are already noises that the existing mobile infrastructure is beginning to struggle as more and more data gets shoved through the airwaves.) The impending smartphone generation is also the reason for such enthusiasm amongst smartphone manufacturers to sue each-other over alleged patent infringements, as they attempt to search for any edge over the competition, including the use of the law as a business tactic. But there's little doubt that we're rapidly approaching one of those pivotal moments where we wonder how we ever managed without one of these clever devices. Whilst it's undoubtedly generational, people who have grown up with instant access to the web, social networks and email are going to simply transpose their desktop habits to the brave new world of smart mobiles. At the moment it seems that's going to be a world that's mediated and dominated by Apple's iPhone and a broad array of Android handsets. But then, 18 months is a very long time in mobile -- there's still time for others to upset the applecart.

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