Smartphones are the current ‘poster child’ of the converged mobile devices market and represent the fastest-growing segment of the global market. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), vendors shipped more than 174 million units in 2009 worldwide, an increase of 15 percent from the previous year.

In Asia, and in China in particular, the segment is booming. Apart from the well-documented resilient performance of China’s economy following the success of its government’s mega-stimulus package, other factors are contributing to this boom. A number of reports from market researchers and analysts and have been released recently, which along with input from leading industry players, shed some light on why Asia is leading the charge in the rapidly-growing smartphone segment.

On the revenue stream side, leading investment bank, Credit Suisse, released a report that showed that the increasing affordability of smartphones, with richer features such as larger screens and faster processors is encouraging owners in Asia (and around the world) to use their handsets for web browsing and instant messaging more. As a result, it predicts that non-SMS wireless broadband data revenues in Asia (ex-Japan) will grow from US$1.3 billion at the end of 2009 to US$14.5 billion at end of 2015. Importantly, Credit Suisse expects higher smartphone revenues to “lead directly to higher cash flows.”

In its report, Credit Suisse, forecasts the number of smartphone users in Asia will reach 347 million by 2015. With potential for huge sales growth such as this it’s hardly surprisingly that both global and local vendors, as well as brand new players, are climbing over each other as they rush to clamber aboard Asia’s smartphone bandwagon.

As market competition intensifies in the smartphone segment, communications service providers will increasingly seek compelling, high quality multimedia applications for end-users and enterprises. Making the careful selection of world-class solutions providers that can enable service providers as well as applications developers and hardware manufacturers to differentiate their products to reduce churn and increase customer satisfaction will become even more important for market success.

This week Microsoft presented two new phones, Kin One and Kin Two, which have an emphasis on social-networking apps such as facebook and twitter.  The Kin One phone, manufactured by Sharp, definitely looks different from other phones out there, with a wider, shorter form factor. I would never consider buying one, but it appears to be targeted at a younger demographic. The phone will be released in the US in the next month, and will probably hit the European market this fall.  

When I heard the news, the first thing I wanted to know was what mobile OS the phones would support. To my surprise, they would support neither Windows Mobile 6.5 nor the upcoming Windows Phone 7, but rather a special version of Windows Mobile. The fact that they will be running a special and secret OS version also implies that there will not be any available apps to download or purchase. It almost seems like the launch is just a joke and a smells a bit of desperation from Microsoft. The new Android phones already support what Microsoft is trying to address, plus much more. Other than the inclusion of the Zune media player and the Zune Marketplace, there appears to be nothing noteworthy about these phones. The only conclusion I can draw is that the price tags will be compelling enough for a younger generation to choose them over Android/iPhone.

There has been quite a bit of action on the mobile communications front over the last few days. It seems as if we are inching closer to a richer mobile VoIP experience, even if mobile phones’ most basic function may be getting left behind. Here is a brief roundup:    

-          Vonage announced the availability of an application for Android phones. The application will run over both WiFi and 3G, and will tie into a user’s existing Vonage service.

-          Rumor has it the next iPhone will be called iPhone HD, presumably to reflect a new 960 x 640 screen (though HD  voice would be nice). There also appears to be concern that sticking to convention, and naming it iPhone 4G would just promote a 4G service that AT&T does not currently have.

-           Finally, Tsahi Levent-Levi makes some great points over at the Radvision blog about the dumbing down of smartphones. Who hasn’t missed a call because they accidentally turned the ringer volume down, or swiped the screen the wrong direction and hung up on someone? Why has making and receiving phone calls taken a backseat to supposedly more advanced functionality?

Now the above headline could easily be a headline from one of Britain’s daily tabloids but it’s also the message I received listening to a mobile phone message recently. While it’s not hard to work out what the person said – it’s just illustrates what bad mobile phone voice quality we tolerate from Operators. So reading the latest headline from ABI Research that ‘ARPUs Continue to fall globally as mobile voice usage nears saturation.’ It seems evident that HD voice is a pretty good solution for these guys. Ex Squeeze me! Hello Haych Dee Voice.

According to ABI, Mobile end-user ARPUs dropped between 6 to 9 percent globally. While in India, the world’s second-largest market in terms of subscribers, saw ARPUs dropping more than 10 percent year-on-year in the same period, as new operators and the introduction of per-second billing put heavy downward pressure on voice revenues. In Europe the ARPU contraction was in the range of -5 to -8%, with Austria seeing a contraction of more than 9%.

I recently received an email from Dan Berninger who organizes the HD Communications summit – which GIPS has sponsored since its inception last year. Good news – having traveled to New York and Paris the event will now be held here in the Silicon Valley on May 12.

Hello again from Barcelona. Today has been quite busy. I have had lots of great conversations with people stopping by the GIPS booth, as well as with other exhibitors. I also got a chance to see what all the handset providers are doing, and was frankly unimpressed.  Here are a few observations, as well as today’s highlights (and lowlights):

-          Yesterday, Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7, which from what I can tell is just the next generation, rebranded Window’s Mobile OS. The demo I saw today made the platform look much slicker and user-friendly than previous iterations of Windows Mobile, and the closer relationship between Microsoft and handset manufacturers should lead to better designed products. However, I don’t think there is anything earth-shattering about this news. I also couldn’t help but laugh when the person giving the demonstration proudly announced the first Windows Phones will be available this upcoming holiday season. Only James Cameron films create more hype longer before a launch date. All in all, the announcement looks like a desperate attempt by Microsoft to catch up to the rest of the smartphone market.

-          Speaking of trying to catch up, I saw a demo of the Samsung Wave, running the Bada OS. The phone looked pretty neat, but just seemed like it was trying to copy iPhone and especially Android. For instance, the location services app doesn’t appear to have anything already not offered by Google Maps.

-          The observation I made yesterday about the importance of apps was reinforced when I visited the App Planet pavilion- an entire exhibit hall which, as the name suggests, is dedicated to application developers and related technology. There were probably dozens of companies offering some sort of platform or tool that enables application development, which leads me to believe the entire market is oversaturated.

-          I saw the back of the Queen of Jordan’s head as she was whisked into an exhibition hall to promote a global education initiative. It is nice to hear that more is going on here than pure commerce.

-          No one at the Motorola booth was able to tell me if the company will offer a version of Droid that supports a GSM SIM card. As a Droid owner, it has been incredibly frustrating being without cell service while attending the largest mobile communications show in the world. I would be curious to know the thinking behind offering a phone that only utilizes CDMA. Is Verizon concerned that users will violate their exclusive agreement and take their phones to another provider? Does it cost more to include an additional radio than the revenue generated from international roaming charges? Whatever the reason, I hope they give customers the ability to actually communicate when they are outside the US.

-          Spaniards appear to be more afraid of water than cats are.  There was a light drizzle this morning, and people were huddled under building overhangs, presumably waiting for clear sky to make the short 2 minute walk between buildings. This jibes with the behavior I have witnessed at Spanish beaches, in which hundreds of people will stand just at the water’s edge, but go no deeper than their ankles, despite overwhelming heat.

-          The most entertaining booth at the show has to belong to Mobile King. I will let you guess why.

I spent a good 4 hours yesterday watching my favorite football team, the Minnesota Vikings, self destruct as only they can. During the frequent commercial breaks, I noticed the over abundance of ads for mobile carriers. There were the usual pudgy Owen Wilson AT&T ads dueling with the Verizon map commercials, along with a few Sprint and Metro PCS spots mixed in. This flurry of activity sparked me to wonder aloud, “How competitive is this market?”

The perception given by all the commercials is that the market is very competitive. Each firm is making its case for why it is the best choice- largest 3G network, fastest downloads, widest selection of phones, least restrictive calling plans, etc- and furiously trying to attract as many customers away from the other providers. Yet, I couldn’t help but think that, while they have offered more services, each successive cell phone plan I have purchased over the last 8 years has only been more expensive than the previous. If this market is that competitive, shouldn’t prices be falling?

If you believe the commercials, it appears as if they are. Verizon and AT&T announced reduced rates for their voice plans. Interestingly enough, they both settled at $69.99 a month, behavior which seems remarkably coordinated. However, as Marguerite Reardon pointed out for CNET, these new plans may actually be more expensive for many users, as they impose higher fees for web and data usage for owners of mid-range phones. 

This is an incredibly complex topic, which we have touched on in the past, but it seems like, at least until now, most carriers have tried to use subsidized phones as their main differentiator. By signing exclusive deals with manufacturers, and then offering phones for reduced upfront fees, operators are able to lure customers based on those phones’ features.  What many consumers may not realize, however, is that they are probably paying more in the long run than users of the same phones in other countries. Telecommunications tends to be a naturally oligopolistic market, and the U.S. mobile market is no exception. The high barrier to entry associated with owning large networks leads to only a small number of firms owning virtually the whole market. But what is most important (and what the FCC will probably be looking into) is if this arrangement is beneficial to consumers. I don’t have an answer to this question, but I do have a nagging feeling that I should be getting more for less.

Magic Jack has announced  a new version of its USB phone/computer connector that allows customers to make cheap phone calls with their cell phones. But hold on. For those who are saying “Yes, another mobile VoIP application”, this one is different. Instead of an application that uses a phone’s WiFi connection to make VoIP calls, the Magic Jack device is a femtocell that will connect a mobile phone to a user’s home broadband connection using the phone’s cellular radio.

Two questions instantly came to mind when I read this news. 1) Why is this better than a smartphone app that uses WiFi, and 2) why is this a cool “mobile” product if users are tied to their home networks?

The answer to both probably has something to do with Magic Jack’s target audience- your grandmother. Magic Jack is going after the substantial portion of American consumers who don’t know a lot about technology. Despite the popularity of the iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices, there are still a lot of people out there who don’t even know what a smartphone is. They don’t care about the latest apps, and they certainly don’t want to figure out how to make VoIP calls over random WiFi networks. They are just looking for a way to cut their phone bills, and maybe even replace their landline, but want something more reliable than just a mobile phone. And they probably buy products off TV infomercials.

Here we go again- another post about mobile OS’s. But how could I resist while Symbian is bleeding and no one (Nokia) seems to be trying to do anything about it? 

Over the last several years, Symbian has been the most widely deployed mobile OS, and until recently, Blackberry and iPhone have been like flyspecks on the wall (and still are in some markets). As I have stated before, this is changing with better usability (iPhone), increased openness (Android) and the proliferation of application development (on Apple Store, Windows Mobile and Android).  It is this last point which makes me wonder if Symbian’s future is even bleaker than indicated in the latest Gartner projections (I also happen to think RIM is in trouble, especially if you read this article, but we can leave that for another post).  

Symbian has been struggling to attract application developers to its Ovi store, even though Nokia seems to understand that application availability will be a driver of mobile device sales and a future source of revenue.  One of the main problems is that developing on Symbian is really complicated. I have heard that it takes 6 times longer to develop an application on Symbian than on iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile. I was personally involved with the Symbian Signed process at GIPS and barely managed to survive. 

It hasn’t always been this way.  A couple of years ago, the Nokia/Symbian online developer community was a lively forum with lots of developer activity and communication. But today it is like entering a funeral compared to the Android forums. No wonder there is much less activity on the Ovi store compared to the Apple Store. 

So why are applications so important? Do most people even download more than 3 applications to their phone?  Does it matter if the Apple Store has 10,000 applications versus 5,000 at Ovi store? Isn’t it more important to have one smart business or personal application versus 100 different kinds of car racing games? 

Ovi might have a good selection of applications that meet people’s basic needs, but I suspect that the interest of developing new applications for Symbian will decrease dramatically with the drop in consumer demand for Symbian phones. I use Symbian, Windows Mobile and iPhone OS devices for work, and by looking what you can do on the new smart phones (such as the new Android) I am becoming  more convinced that the smart applications will play a very important role in the future.

The gloves are off and the iPhone looks to finally have decent competition here in the US with the release of Droid today. AT&T’s exclusive agreement with Apple has pushed its competitor Verizon to develop their own phone that directly competes with iPhone.

It’s great to see a new smartphone on the market that has consumers and sour anti-Apple fans excited. It hasn’t caught the same trailblazing buzz that the iPhone created – but it’s doing a good job of getting noticed.

The advert below says it all and I must admit I would be tempted to leave AT&T/iPhone if my contract was nearly up.

Earlier this week in a timely shot across the bow, or perhaps chest puffing,  Apple announced that its  application store, now has “over  100,000 applications available” and added “the iPhone SDK created the first great platform for mobile applications and our customers are loving all of the amazing apps our developers are creating.”

The iPhone currently has 125,000 developers in its program and more than 2 billion downloads – plus it’s a global phone unlike the Droid, which is available only in the US.  However, with more phones being developed on the Android platform some predict that Android based phones will overtake Apple in market share by 2012.

However, when it comes down to it – Apple is currently the standard for smartphones and every smartphone, including Droid, is defining itself on how it compares to the iPhone. Let the applications, chest-puffing and games begin.

A lot of what is written about mobile VoIP centers on carrier resistance to the technology, for fear of revenue cannibalization.  Today, GIPS and Israeli company Outsmart announced a partnership which could redefine the way carriers view VoIP. Outsmart has integrated GIPS technology in their Plug N’ Talk softphone to deliver high-quality VoIP to mobile customers. By offering a softphone that is tied to a user’s mobile account and loaded on a USB memory stick, mobile operators can use VoIP to retain customers and realize revenue from VoIP calls.

Plug N’ Talk is already successfully deployed with Filipino carrier SMART, and is targeted at Filipinos living abroad. With Plug N’ Talk, Filipinos can maintain their mobile numbers and accounts, while enjoying local rates for international calls from softphones to other Smart customers. But don’t take my word for it, check out the commercial. I have no idea what she is saying, but it sure looks fun!