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FMC and Smartphones to Fuel Dual-Mode Cell Phone Market

7:00 am on August 6, 2007 | Category: Cell Phones, Cellular, Mobile Devices, Telephone, Wi-Fi, Wireless Technology

Revenue from Wi-Fi-enabled cell phones will show strong, double-digit growth every year through 2010, at which time it will top $145 billion, according to a recent report by Infonetics Research.

The increasing popularity of fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) and Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones should drive the dual-mode handset market upwards at a compound annual growth rate of 31% between 2006 and 2010, Infonetics predicts. Growing availability of multimedia smartphones for the consumer sector will be an especially important factor in this growth.

“To date, smartphone purchasers have been largely business power- users, but the launch of Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s BlackJack media-playing smartphones that appeal to consumers is giving the smartphone segment a boost, and could change the dynamics of the mobile phone market,” explained Richard Webb, the directing analyst for wireless at Infonetics Research. “Vendors will design more consumer-oriented smartphones, and cause fierce competition among incumbent players.”

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