Handago's predictions for 07 Smartphones

location based services


Smartphone Content Leader Announces Expected Trends for Next Year in Rapidly- Growing Smartphone Market. Handango today unveiled its top seven predictions for 2007. With multiple touch points throughout the smartphone content ecosystem, including strong relationships with thousands of content providers, leading carriers and device manufacturers, and millions of consumers, Handango is uniquely qualified to forecast on behalf of the smartphone market. Incorporating global sales and download statistics, content development trends, consumer behavior and demands from its partners, Handango makes these top seven predictions for 2007: 1. Smartphones Will Go Mainstream 2. Mobile TV Will Hit the Small Screen in a Big Way 3. GPS-Enabled Location Based Services (LBS) Will Be Killer Applications 4. Smartphone Adoption in Europe Will Continue to Explode 5. Over-The-Air (OTA) Downloads Will Grow at a Faster Pace 6. More Professionals in Vertical Markets Will Rely on Smartphone Content 7. Large Consumer Brands Will Create Content for Smartphones 1. Smartphones Will Go Mainstream The landscape for smartphone devices is changing. Previously, smartphones were often considered a niche product, only getting a sliver of retail shelf space in carrier stores. These days, however, smartphone competition is fierce. With the introduction of slimmer models with faster speeds, excellent screen resolution and full QWERTY keyboards, today's smartphones are more consumer-friendly. Combine that with mainstream consumer marketing tactics and a significant drop off in handset prices, and smartphones are quickly becoming more attractive and more economical for the mass market consumer. Approximately 123 million units are forecast to be shipped worldwide this year, giving smartphones almost a 15 percent share of the mobile phone market, according to tech research firm ABI Research. With the recent launches of the popular Motorola Q, Blackberry Pearl and Samsung BlackJack devices, Handango has already experienced an increase in on- device and Web-based downloads of mainstream consumer applications like mobile TV, instant messaging, games and ringtone managers. "We see device prices dropping, entertainment content downloads increasing and more consumer-friendly packaging emerging," said Randy Eisenman, founder and chief executive office of Handango. "The widespread adoption of smartphones is at a tipping point, and we're excited to be part of it." 2. Mobile TV Will Hit the Small Screen in a Big Way Smartphone screen quality and download speeds are constantly improving, making mobile devices a convenient choice for viewing more than just photos or quick video clips. With popular television shows now available for download, people are increasingly watching programs on-the-go. Although Yankee Group reports in its 2006 U.S. Mobile User Survey that less than 5% of respondents are currently using their mobile phones for watching TV and video, Handango predicts that this is a huge area of growth for the smartphone market in 2007. Live and streaming applications MobiTV, HandiTV and PocketStreamer were all launched in 2006 and quickly broke into the top 40 best-selling titles for the Pocket PC platform. Fourth quarter revenue for these three applications alone is projected to increase 63% over the previous quarter. 3. GPS-Enabled Location-Based Services (LBS) Will Be Killer Applications According to ABI Research, subscribers using GPS-enabled location-based services will total 315 million in five years. "GPS" is now the most popular search term on Handango.com despite the fact that the majority of existing GPS applications require an additional piece of hardware. "We expect the use of GPS applications to move quickly beyond general mapping and more towards true location-based services," said Eisenman. "As smartphone manufacturers work to produce GPS-enabled devices, content providers will publish more LBS applications and people will start to use the services for social purposes like making restaurant reservations, locating friends nearby and accessing relevant coupons." 4. Smartphone Adoption in Europe Will Continue to Explode Research firm IDC expects that from 2006 until 2010, shipments of converged mobile devices in Western Europe will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 49.3%, the largest of all regions across the globe. Currently, 15% of Handango's content downloads originate from consumers located in Western Europe. Handango operates localized storefronts under the Handango brand for France, Germany and UK, and as part of its core strategy of market expansion in Europe, the company recently launched Handango Italia and the http://www.handango.it/ Web site. "The European market has experienced rapid growth in smartphones this year," said Eisenman. "We plan to put more focus on our localized Web sites to satisfy growing smartphone content requests, offering country-relevant applications from the Handango catalog of thousands of mobile content titles. In addition, we will announce new European carrier and OEM partnerships in 2007." 5. Over-The-Air (OTA) Downloads Will Grow at a Faster Pace Smartphones are increasingly easy to use without having to rely on a PC for support. As a result, consumers are more readily browsing and downloading content over-the-air (OTA), eliminating the need to go to the Web to make purchases. Content downloads occurring from Handango's on-device storefronts increased 186% year-over-year, and Handango expects that growth to increase even more in 2007. 6. More Professionals in Vertical Markets Will Rely on Smartphone Content Smartphones are becoming popular among a variety of vertical markets, including real estate, law, finance and medicine, where professionals utilize mobile content for business productivity. As an example, Handango reports that revenues for the top four medical applications for Pocket PC have grown more than 25% from 2005 to 2006 and remain an often-requested type of content. Handango also reports that many of its top tier carrier partners are now requesting industry-specific applications to support their sales forces that are selling more smartphone devices into vertical markets. 7. Large Consumer Brands Will Create Content for Smartphones Well-known consumer brands and media companies are entering the fray, creating content for smartphones. This year, companies such as ESPN, Google, The Weather Channel, Konami, TV Guide and Skype began distributing their branded content though Handango. Handango believes this is only the tip of the iceberg as more traditional, non-mobile companies begin to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the smartphone content market. "In summary, our place in the smartphone content ecosystem perfectly positions Handango to see developing trends," said Eisenman. "We look forward to monitoring these seven developments in the coming year — and expect to be right in the middle of all the action." http://www.wirelessiq.com/content/newsfeed/8989.html