Mobile predictions for 2010

08 December 2009, 10:28am

Christopher Backeberg of thewherebusiness.com looks at some of the location and navigation trends in the mobile industry that pundits have suggested we monitor in 2010. See some extracts below.

Location-based services come of age: Analyst Jack Gold claims that "2010 will finally be the year of LBS," citing applications such as the free, turn-by-turn navigation app from Google on Android, demonstrating how much versatility can be extracted from GPS - essential for LBS.

LBS social networks: Pete Cashmore of Mashable believes the more popular location-based social networks will be the "breakout" services of 2010, with the proviso that they will have to survive the location-based offerings threats from Facebook and Twitter.

Augmented reality: Mashable's Pete Cashmore suspects augmented reality (AR) will have to prove that it can offer substance beyond the "early-adopter buzz" of 2009. They may be ‘cool’, but are they really useful? Yet InventorSpot's Ron Calliari believes AR has already proved itself.

Market share for smartphones: 250 million smartphones will be shipped in 2010, from 1.3 billion mobiles in total, according to Gerry Purdy of Frost & Sullivan, and in the US, virtually all phones sold will be smartphones within five years. This rate of growth is reflected in research from other companies, as well.

The Android challenge: Frost & Sullivan predicts as many as 36 different Android devices in 2010- numbers shipped increasing from 3.7 million in 2009 to 8.2 million next year, and by 2014, Android could start to dominate the market. Gartner believes Android could move up to second place behind Symbian by 2012.

Smartphones remain supplemental: Researchers at Intel and Frost & Sullivan believe users will continue to view their smartphones as supplementary to devices with bigger screens and keyboards.

Indoor navigation takes off: BDNooz is optimistic that developing technology will be a huge boost for developers of indoor navigation apps and services, building on hybrid location such as the combination of Wi-Fi, GPS and triangulation provided by Skyhook, and Bluetooth will provide very accurate reckoning of location.

Accelerometers: iSuppli suggest that one-third of smartphones will use accelerometers in 2010, which add many functions to a phone, from changing the screen display from portrait to landscape to simulating the rolling of dice in games, or turning a phone into a compass.

Ads embedded in apps: Tessa Wegert of ClickZ says publishers are reporting increased interest in advertising inside mobile apps, and publishers have started partnering with companies such as Rich Media and Medialets to exploit the advertising potential of apps.

No explosion of mobile advertising: Noah Elkin of iMedia Connection is inclined to the view that mobile will grow incrementally rather than dramatically as more brands and agencies add it into their marketing mix.

Source: thewherebusinessnow.com news release

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Geo: International