Touch Screen Phones
The growth of touch screen phones has been nothing short of remarkable, driven most recently by the flow of ‘accessory’ products from Apple, Samsung and others.
The touch screen phone revolution has also touched off some additional spinoffs that have captivated the world of technology (and its growing armies of users). Apple’s iPhone was launched in 2007 and saw a massive growth in the touch screen phones worldwide.
Since then there’s been Google’s Android which has further taken the smartphone growth to new heights.
In terms of topping phone shipments, it appears that Nokia remains at the top of the smartphone or touch screen phone market – at least in terms of total phone shipments, although the growth in the mobile phone market of over 30 per cent saw Nokia’s market share drop to just under 30 per cent during the 2010 year, according to Gartner’s figures in 2011.
Touch screen phones and smart phones generally have grown by over 70 per cent last year with over 1.6 billion phones shipped, according to consulting firm Canalys.
The growth of Androids has left Nokia’s Symbian slightly bemused if not bewildered. Symbian has however been seen as an operating system in decline for some time now even though Nokia has provided support of its Ovi application store. The company has failed to stop Google and Apple stealing market share.
The attempt to create a third force in the mobile world will not only give Nokia the support it clearly needs, but could also provide an entry point into the US market but is it too late for an industry moving as quickly as the smartphone/touch screen phones market? Every year behind is a year wasted.
A new deal is expected to be a positive one for Microsoft however, which has really tried hard to enter the smartphone market. There is a risk that, despite opening up new markets for its developers with the adoption of Windows phone, Nokia’s handsets will simply blend in with the rest of the Windows Phone manufacturers. With Micorsoft imposing a minimum hardware spec formats handsets, Nokia’s “iconic hardware” Elop continually referred to at Mobile World Congress could end up lost in the crowd.
Could Nokia just wind up providing something for Microsoft to differentiate its Windows Phone 7 devices like HTC or Samsung?