- Tuesday, 9 February 2010
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I find an internal combustion engine to be injurious to my health - Mike Magee
PC makers are looking to smartphones
PC MAKERS are increasingly looking to the mobile market to help bolster flagging revenues, according to analyst firm Gartner.
The mobile phone market already dwarfs that of PCs, but Gartner reckons that by the end of the year worldwide smartphone sales will have grown by 29 per cent year-over-year to reach 180 million units, overtaking notebooks in total unit terms.
This is only expected to continue, with smartphones expected to account for about 37 per cent of global handset sales by 2012, up from the 14 per cent stake they currently hold.
As a result smartphone revenue is forecast to reach $191 million by 2012, higher than end user spending on mobile PCs.
Some companies, such as HP, have been periodically dipping their toe into the PDA and smartphone market, and we've seen this trend accelerate in recent months, with Acer, Asus and Toshiba all launching their own smartphones. Although rumours of a Dell smartphone have surfaced from time to time, there are a few notable exceptions, like Lenovo, that have shown no inclination to develop a smartphone.
Although this makes the case for the move into this arena a fairly obvious one, it's not going to be a simple transition, according to the report.
Gartner reckons that, excluding Apple, PC vendors with their own smartphones collectively own less than one percent of the market. Even with a concerted push, Gartner doesn't think any single PC vendor will hold more than two per cent of the smartphone market during the next three years.
"PC vendors should realise that while convergence of technologies offers an opportunity to enter into the smartphone arena, the business models, go to market and positioning of products is very different from the PC market," said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner.
"PC vendors will find it difficult to simply use existing supply chains and channels to expand their presence in the smartphone market. The smartphone and notebook markets are governed by different rules when it comes to successfully marketing and selling products."
Cozza points out that most of these devices have been based on Windows Mobile, but if these vendors are hoping to catch the eye of the consumer they'll almost certainly have to ditch the corporate look and feel of the phone and the operating system.
The way people think about their mobile phone is very different from how they look at their PCs. In general, specifications are less important, brand and user experience are significant differentiators and uptake is driven by users rather than by IT managers.
Cozza concluded that not only are these PC vendors going to have a hard time adjusting their development and business models to this different market, but taking share from the existing, entrenched mobile giants is going to be a tall order. However Apple has certainly proven that the task is not impossible. µ
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All PC makers are already in the smartphone business and those who have not joined the bandwagon perhaps do not want to be in the PC manufacturing itself or of little consequence. HP, Dell,lenovo, Acer, Apple, Toshiba, Asus smartphones are already competing in smartphone market or have announced definitive plans. The fact remains that with the advent of Netbooks the difference between the smartphones, netbooks and notebooks have blurred beyond ones imagination for the consumers. Its a battle between the form factor which one likes and prefers. May be users will use two devices one for primarily voice communication and another for Data.
Within 2 generations your mobile will BE your low end pc.
Apple, Google, Microsoft, Symbian, whoever it is, it doesnt really matter.
But one of them will get there first.
They will release a phone with a docking station that has HDMI and USB. Basic IO for web browsing and video playback.
You'll come home, drop the phone in the docking station and do whatever you normally do with a PC.
Seriously, Mobile phones are massively powerful these days. It wasnt that long ago that servers were running specs like this.
My first pc was a 486-DX2 66mhz which I naturally overclocked to 80mhz. That was 2nd hand and old in 1996.
However, if you actually care to think about it for more than a minute, you'll realise that that was more than capable of running NT4 or 95, Office 97 and at an absolute stretch Firefox 2.something.
An average smartphone crushes that spec.
Most can now play video smoothly.
All they need is a keyboard, mouse, and larger screen.
My suspicion is that Apple will get there first.
The fact they're looking into high speed fibre based busses makes me think they're looking for ways to add multiple devices efficiently. Something like hypertransport but fibre would certainly do the trick.
The possibilities are endless there. Processors and all manner of IO would be seamlessly plug and play.
Personally I hope Google push that way first, but I'm not expecting it.
Microsoft? Well, they wont. Simply because of Windows x86.
They wouldnt want WinMo to take over.
Windows XP would run quite well on a smartphone - all it needs is win3.1's progman.exe and it'd even be easy to use.
Oh the irony there. Imagine; 3.1 was actually way ahead of it's time! It just needed touchscreens to be invented to make sense!
I'm rambling, but I think anyone with some historical knowledge would see my point.
Fact is: smartphones out-everything PC's of 10 years ago.
PC's of 10 years ago werent that horrible that they couldnt still be used for web browsing.
Therefore; whomever figures out how to make the smartphone replace the bottom end PC will own the market for as long as it takes a competitor to catch up.
A Mobile Device From Archos Already Has a Hdmi Out and it runs Android.
I Believe Android Will implement new Features First then the Iphone,Since it is open Source and HAVE more people working in the Platform.2010 it`s going to be the year for ANDROID.
http://www.i4u.com/article26983.html
Sometime in the not too distant future, say 30 years from now, people will be looking at PCs in museums and thinking how big and bulky computers once were.