Editor’s Note: With 2013 now upon us, RCR Wireless News has gathered predictions from leading industry analysts and executives on what they expect to see in the new year.
1. Price pressures ensure the survival of the feature phone: Although the feature-phone category will continue to play second fiddle to the smartphone in 2013, price pressures will secure its survival for now.
2. NFC deployments concentrate on information sharing: So far near field communications technology has been synonymous with mobile payments. However, in 2013 WDS expects to see NFC deployments start to re-focus on the sharing of information.
3. Mobile operators finally pose a real challenge to fixed-line players: “4G” proposes theoretical speeds five-times faster than 3G. As such in 2013, WDS expects to see “4G” become a feasible, and potentially preferable, alternative to fixed-line broadband.
4. Android goes viral: In 2013, WDS expects the mobile operating system to go viral and occupy a whole range of “smart” electronics, such as smart TVs and satellite navigation.
5. The beginning of the end for patent wars: It appears that Apple may not continue its legal war against Google’s Android. Samsung also signaled a less antagonizing approach going forward, saying, “We strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court.” WDS expects 2013 to be the year that the bitter patent feuds between smartphone rivals will cool.
6. Lingering patent litigation benefits Windows Phone OS: For those OEMs deeply invested in Android, the need to diversify and include a secondary OS in their line-up now seems very prudent as a way of avoiding litigation. Microsoft offers patent protection to Windows Phone licensees and this could help it secure a place as the third major wireless OS in 2013.
7. HTML5 Web apps evolve: With the tablet continuing to be the most prominent high-growth category device, we’ll see a rapid acceleration in the adoption of cross-platform HTML5 web apps, a safer development investment.
8. The Kindle phone enters the market: With a plethora of existing media content, 2013 could be the year that Amazon enters the smartphone category with a sister offering to its popular Kindle tablet. Amazon’s hardware efforts in the tablet category seem to be serving the launch of a mobile phone very well.
9. BlackBerry bounces back: In 2013, WDS expects Research In Motion to increase device shipments. In Q3 of 2012, RIM’s global smartphone market share fell for the sixth consecutive quarter to stand at just 4%. However, in 2013 WDS expects RIM’s fortunes to take a turn for the better following the launch of its much anticipated BB10 OS.
10. Security threats put enterprise vendors on the mobile map: In a post-PC era of multi-platform computing, smartphones are an increasingly common target for cyber-crime. WDS does not expect mobile security threats to become a mass-market threat in 2013, but the issue will be prevalent enough for enterprise security vendors to stake their claim in the post-PC market place.
