Mobile devices turn up the heat

Posted on 21 Oct 2002 at 14:31

Shipments more than double, with the Nokia 7650 putting Symbian at the top of the OS charts

Figures for EMEA (Europe, Middle-East and Africa) shipments of mobile devices in Q3 showed a 104 per cent growth over the corresponding quarter in 2001, figures from research group Canalys show. This puts an end to four consecutive quarters of decline.

The market is led by the introduction of a single phone, Nokia's 7650, which has been in such demand by retailers that Nokia temporarily ran out of stock in September. Its popularity also helps place Symbian's mobile operating system in the top spot with a 57 per cent market share.

'We've seen Symbian surge before,' said Canalys director and senior analyst Chris Jones. 'When the Nokia 9210 Communicator hit the shelves one year ago. This is quite common when a new product launches, but often proves unsustainable. We knew there would be another one this quarter, but the 7650 is aimed at a wider audience and the indications from the channel are much more positive this time.'

Palm OS managed a 32 per cent rise, with Palm devices growing 33 per cent on Q3 2001. Sony's presence aided the PalmOS ascent, with its shipment of products exploding 709 per cent on a year ago. Pocket PC devices fared less well, although HP managed a 9 per cent market share and Toshiba entered the market strongly with 4 per cent.

Jones told us he expected to see the popularity of PocketPC devices rise when Dell enters the market. 'Dell is expected to enter the PDA market at the upcoming Comdex conference in Las Vegas, with a European launch around six months later.' he said. While the talk has been of a $199 device, he expects that to be the lower limit for such a device, and guesses European pricing to be between €249 and €349.

'Even so, Dell will bring down the cost of Pocket PC devices across the board by coming in with aggressive prices,' he said. 'They may even put aside some of the margins to other ranges in order to make an impact on the market.'

He also expects to see some innovative marketing techniques from the company as it attempts to focus on selling to individuals as well as corporates. 'Dell doesn't traditionally sell to individuals, so we may see kiosks in shops so that customers can see and feel the products, rather than being restricted to choosing them on the Web site.'

For the immediate future, though, he predicts the brightest stars will be the feature-laden phones from the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

The 7650 and T68i haven't really been able to capitalise on the nascent MMS market, with only a few operators having added the service to date. Jones said, 'The success of MMS depends on consumers understanding the technology, the handsets being affordable (£200 or less) and there being enough devices out there for people to send pictures to. But to take full advantage of MMS you need to be able to send MMS messages to any device... Nokia came in a bit earlier than the operators did (with MMS services) and may be took a risk in doing so. However, even if the 7650 doesn't sell as well as expected, it has the 3650 which it will launch next quarter.'

Sony Ericsson will also pitch in with the P800 next year, and Microsoft is invited to the party with the Sendo device from Orange using the Phone Edition software. Check out the PC Pro site later today for our exclusive review of the handset.

Business-oriented wireless PDAs such as O2's xda and RIM's Blackberry failed to take more than 3 per cent of the market, and Jones doesn't expect the market to move much over the coming quarters. 'RIM has only around 200,000 subscribers in Europe, which is disappointing. O2's xda and T-Mobile's MDA aren't shifting in large volumes because they are "closed" devices - they can only be used on the operators' network, which means customers may have to think about changing networks and new numbers.' he said.