Smartphone

A report by research firm Deloitte has predicted that 500 million smartphones with a retail price of $100 or less will likely be in use worldwide in 2012.

Although smartphones seem like old news, their impact on the wireless industry is only beginning. In 2012, as these phones become truly mainstream consumer devices, sales volumes and data network traffic will skyrocket, forcing the wireless industry to completely rethink how it designs, sells, deploys and operates wireless services.

Low-power wireless technologies will gain a foothold in the smartphone: In 2012 over 35% of smartphones will be shipped with dual-mode Bluetooth low energy (also known as Bluetooth Smart Ready). In addition, a third major phone brand will incorporate ANT, with this in mind, over 10 million ANT+ enabled phones will be shipped in 2012.

Smartphone sales as percentage of total sales will break the 20% barrier in 2012, with Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile having especially important increases in smartphone adoption. Smartphone adoption in the region will be driven by increased vendor competition, fuelled by Chinese manufacturers that offer affordable Android phones and operators trying to increase their smartphone base to increase data revenue.

2011 was a transitional year for the mobile space as consumers began to look at their wireless devices more as a connection to the Internet than as simply a phone. …

In 2011, MEF accurately forecast that the proliferation of smartphones would drive mobile consumer engagement with a number of other predictions also coming to fruition. MEF’s success in anticipating and addressing key industry issues, combined with its increased representation of the wider mobile content and commerce industry, place it in a strong position to forecast the top mobile industry trends for 2012.

IDC Latin America followed the company’s global predictions in forecasting that 2012 will be the year of mobile and cloud platform wars as IT vendors vie for leadership while the …

Although IT consumerization is a relatively new phenomenon, it cannot be ignored by chief information officers. IBM is taking steps to address enterprise-class requirements with a series of new mobile apps.

As the holiday shopping season gets under way this week, merchants can expect to see more transactions completed using wireless devices. A survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that 45% of …

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reader Forum section. In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers, we have created this forum for those with something meaningful to say …

Smartphones were the fastest-growing handset category across Latin America, with sales of 31 million units sold and U.S. $6 billion in revenue, continuing the trend of the region’s increasing share of the global market, according to a report by consulting firm Pyramid Research.

Qualcomm is looking to take advantage of Latin America’s relatively modest 3G penetration rates to boost its influence and revenues in the region. As part of this, Qualcomm said it was …

Even though it happened about four and a half years ago, I remember it like it was yesterday.  It was the most depressing CTIA show I ever attended, March 2007 …

Mobile phones today are virtually unrecognizable from when they were first commercially released 30 years ago. Throughout this incredible period of innovation, the SIM card, the removable card placed in the mobile phone with a chip enabling operators to provide access to their network, has remained virtually unchanged.

Last week, the mobile industry lost a great hero and villain with the passing of a single person, Steve Jobs. Companies like Apple and Pixar have toppled industry leaders in …

I have argued for a long time that unlimited data plans are unsustainable – or basically that they are marketing fiction, because available wireless capacity is unfailingly limited, and subscribers cannot escape that fact no matter what operators tell them. And they have all experienced that when their connection becomes unbearably slow, or the device fails to even connect.

While smartphones dominate the market and mobile broadband access is consolidated in developed countries, Brazil is still beginning its 3G experience – from carriers and suppliers as well as consumers. …