GETTING THIN

Like a runway model sporting the latest fashions, mobile handsets have gone thin with a vengeance. That’s hardly earth-shaking news, but new data reflects the industry’s headlong embrace of thin. And practical constraints pose some limits to this squeeze play.
Those limits-seemingly acknowledged by some handset vendors, pushed by others-may have played a role in ushering in The Next Big Thing: a new focus on colors, materials and finishes, or CMF.
According to data from Current Analysis, the average volume of mobile phones released in the United States has fallen from about 8 cubic inches to nearly 6.5 cubic inches over the past three years. Average volume has dropped precipitously from about 7.5 to 6.5 cubic inches in just the past six months.
The implication is that of the three dimensions creating volume-height, width and depth-market pressures in the post-Razr world have favored squeezing depth to a “sweet spot” under 15 millimeters, or a little over a half-inch, according to Avi Greengart, analyst with Current Analysis.
Though thin is a fashion and fashions require newness and change, Greengart does not see this element changing in the foreseeable future.
The limits of thin, however, are found at a crossroads where style and battery life may collide, according to Bill Hughes at In-Stat.
“Thin’s biggest effect has been on battery size,” Hughes said. “The phone vendor decides on the trade-off between thinness and battery life.”
Motorola Inc.’s Razr followup, the Krzr, accepted a few millimeters to its waistline as it went a bit narrower and longer with added functionality and fresh attention to eye-catching finishes. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s new Ultra Thin series clearly reflects its abilities as “a technological innovator and fast follower,” Greengart said. Samsung’s Trace at T-Mobile USA, at less than one-third inch thick, currently takes the cake for thinness-though, of course, fashion models aren’t allowed to actually eat cake.
Greengart’s impromptu “Five Thin Phones to Watch” include the Motofone for emerging markets, Samsung’s Ultra versions of the Trace and the M610, plus its Carbon slider phone and P310 and Nokia Corp.’s 6300-the Finnish vendor’s bid in the thin category.