News
06/10/2009
IDATE forecasts the Connected Devices market will rise from a 1.5% of total handset volumes shipped in 2008 to around 11% in 2013 with 166 Million Units shipped
Connected Devices
Following the success of smartphones, dedicated to mobile internet browing and data exchange, a new category of connected devices has emerged, in which netbooks have been the most successful to date, and it has radically changed the dynamics of the mobile telecom market.
The report, published by IDATE, provides a thorough analysis of the Connected Devices market up to 2013 and its impact for players of the mobile value chain.
• Prospects for this market are bright. Based on our estimates of the Connected Device market for each category of devices (Netbooks, MIDs, Electronics readers), IDATE forecasts that the Connected Devices market will rise from a 1.5% of total handset volumes shipped in 2008 (~18 Million Units) to around 11.1% in 2013 with 166 Million Units shipped. Netbooks will account for the main part (62 million Units shipped in 2013).
• This prosperous market has attracted the interest of major players from IT and the Mobile sector, who are trying to propose hardware and software products at the convergence of the fixed and nomad worlds. A strategic battle is thus taking place between hardware providers, such as Intel and ARM, and software providers, like Windows as well as Google (Linux based solution) , to conquer these new nomad platforms.
• In this growing market, Mobile Operators provide an entry point to the mobile web and have to broaden their devices portfolio. The value proposition has been increasingly attractive for netbooks and their associated data plans. Whereas MID and electronic book traction has been limited for now, most operators worldwide are now proposing netbooks offers bundled with a data allowance. However, these offers are still largely experimental with uncertain profitability and sustainability due to the lack of any incremental service strategy: operators are still trying out different levels of upfront subsidisation/monthly plan level combinations and limiting the number of authorised subscriptions for each plan.
• New challenges and opportunities are emerging for operators. Providing connected devices could add complexity: based on the success of netbook sales bundled with data plans, hopes are put on the possible transformation of mobile operators business into a new distribution channel for consumer electronics devices, but this also means customer support and product handling. On the other hand, the development of Mobile Cloud Computing services could become an important opportunity for operators proposing software as a service for this new range of connected devices.
