Bada emerges - an ironic challenge to Android?

Samsung Electronics will unveil its new open mobile platform, Bada, next month. Samsung seems to be following a trend of OSs that is “open” yet proprietary. The name
"Bada" is Korean for "ocean." The name was chosen "to convey the limitless variety of potential applications that can be created using the new platform," according to the company's statement.
Market research firm In-Stat believes the name is ironic as it highlights the almost limitless variety of mobile OSs as Bada joins Symbian, Android, Maemo, LiMo, WebOS, Windows Mobile, RIM, OSX, and Moblin to name a few. “Anything but Symbian” might have been another appropriate name as that seems to be the message coming from the major handset vendors, but “anything but Symbian” does not have the simplicity of the Bada moniker.
In-Stat believes the stakes are high. Gone are the days when the basis of competition was solely defined by hardware. The software is becoming the key in determining the user experience. Even within the software stack, however, the focus is shifting from the OS to the software and even more importantly, the applications. In fact, the new focus on enabling third party applications places very high stakes on these new OSs. If the growing army of professional and amateur software developers develop or port applications to a particular OS, the success of the handset platform and opportunity for the carrier could be high. If, however, a particular OS does not garner support from developers, then the result could be disastrous. So, is it a good idea to be introducing a new smartphone OS given the dominant position of Symbian or the momentum behind Android? In-Stat does not believe
that it is a good move at this time unless you can offer a compelling solution to the software developer, the carrier and the consumer.
“The momentum of alternative OSs is unmistakable and will continue to cut away at Symbian’s market share,” says In-Stat Vice President of Mobile research, Frank Dickson. “While it is difficult to forecast the future of new entrants like Bada, the market might of Samsung will give Bada life. In the short term, Android seems to have the strong momentum. 2010 will be the year of Android.”

DivX and WiMax in Samsung Mondi

Samsung has launched the first WiMax enabled mobile Internet device to support DivX video decoding. The Samsung Mondi sports a 4.3in touch screen, 4Gbytes of storage with microSD expansion and WiFI and WiMax wireless networking. It runs Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system.
DivX technology produces highly compressed video suitable for mobile platforms that require minimal storage for the highest quality experience possible. Using the Mondi's large 4.3-inch touch screen, consumers will be able to playback DivX video stored on the device's internal 4GB memory or on additional microSD flash cards.
"Supporting high-resolution, high-quality video playback on new and emerging mobile devices is one element of our strategy to enable a seamless, end-to-end solution for digital media," said Kevin Hell, Chief Executive Officer at DivX. "The Mondi joins a broad array of other DivX Certified Samsung consumer electronics devices that are a part of the DivX ecosystem. We look forward to partnering with Samsung to bring our robust, high-quality DivX video solution to their next generation of mobile devices, digital TVs, and Blu-ray players."
The Mondi follows on from the Omnia, Samsung's first DivX mobile phone, launched in November last year, but Nokia also has a WiMax-enabled (but not DivX) phone in the N810.

Smartphone shipments set to grow this year

Smartphone shipments worldwide are projected to grow 13% in 2009 to 164 million units, providing bright market opportunities for both handset and chip vendors in the current economy, according to a new report from market researchers Forward Concepts. Nokia and Symbian (now part of Nokia) continue to dominate the market.
With the economy expected to be on the mend in 2010, Forward Concepts forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 21.7% to the 387 million unit level in 2013.
Nokia continues to be the leader in Smartphone shipments, with an estimated 2008 market share of 34%, followed by RIM at 13%, Apple at 9.6% and Sharp at 5.7%. Sony Ericsson follows with a 5.3% market share, then HTC at 5%, Motorola at 4.6% and Samsung at 4%. 16 other Smartphone vendors constitute the other 18% share.
Currently, Japan leads in Smartphone consumption, with a 21% 2008 market share, followed by Western Europe at 18%, and North America and China, each with 17%.
Symbian continues to be the leading Smartphone operating system, with an estimated 49% unit market share in 2008, while Microsoft Windows has grown to a 14% share, and RIM with 13%. Linux and its Android implementations have reached 11%, followed by ARM's O/S X with 10%, Palm with 2% and Danger at 1%. Although Symbian is expected to remain dominant, market penetration and shares of most of the other are projected to grow.
According to Will Strauss, Forward Concepts' president and editor of the report, "Despite the slowdown in the overall mobile handset market, the strong growth for Smartphones is partly due to the uptake in mobile data which leads to higher revenue for the operators. Because of the higher data revenue that it brings, we project that higher-end feature phones will lose market share to Smartphones as a result of the narrowing spread in (subsidized) up-front net cost to the end user."

"Strong 3G mobile Internet demand will drive a long-term growth trend in the global Smartphone market with 2013 penetration levels exceeding 50% in the major operator-subsidized regions of North America and Western Europe."

said Co-author of the report, Satish Menon.

The report also forecasts the components that go into these devices, including key integrated circuits like digital basebands, RF transceivers and PA's, communication processors, application processors, graphics, multi-touch screen controllers, memories and chips for all the new functions being added to Smartphones...like camera sensors, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM, GPS, Mobile TV, NFC, fingerprint sensors, accelerometers, etc.
The detailed 607-page study profiles over 80 companies and includes 64 figures and 152 tables plus appendix. It is available from Forward Concepts at: www.fwdconcepts.com/Smartphones