Handango, the world's leading provider of smartphone content, has unveiled its top seven predictions for 2007. Relationships with thousands of content providers, carriers, manufacturers, and millions of consumers, make Handango is uniquely qualified to forecast on behalf of the smartphone market.
1. Smartphones will go mainstream
Smartphones were often considered a niche product, only getting a sliver of retail shelf space in carrier stores. But with the introduction of slimmer models with faster speeds, excellent screen resolution, and full QWERTY keyboards, today's smartphones are more consumer-friendly. Combine that with mainstream marketing tactics and a significant drop in handset prices, smartphones are quickly becoming more attractive to consumers. Approximately 123 million units are forecast to be shipped worldwide this year, giving smartphones almost a 15% share of the mobile phone market, according to tech research firm ABI Research.
With the recent launches of the popular Motorola Q, BlackBerry Pearl, and Samsung BlackJack devices, Handango has already experienced an increase in on-device and Web-based downloads of mainstream consumer applications, like mobile TV, instant messaging, games, and ringtone managers.
"We see device prices dropping, entertainment content downloads increasing, and more consumer-friendly packaging emerging," said Randy Eisenman, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Handango. "The widespread adoption of smartphones is at a tipping point"
2. Mobile TV will hit the small screen in a big way
Smartphone screen quality and download speeds are constantly improving, making mobile devices a convenient choice for viewing more than just photos or quick video clips. With popular television shows now available for download, people are increasingly watching programs on-the-go.
Although Yankee Group reports in its 2006 U.S. Mobile User Survey that less than 5% of respondents are currently using their mobile phones for watching TV and video, Handango predicts that this is a huge area of growth for the smartphone market in 2007. The live and streaming applications MobiTV, HandiTV, and PocketStreamer were all launched in 2006 and quickly broke into the top 40 best-selling titles for the Pocket PC platform.
3. GPS LBS services will be killer applications
According to ABI Research, subscribers using GPS-enabled location-based services will total 315 million in five years. "GPS" is now the most popular search term on Handango.com despite the fact that the majority of existing GPS applications require additional hardware.
"We expect the use of GPS applications to move quickly beyond general mapping and more towards true location-based services," said Eisenman. "As smartphone manufacturers work to produce GPS-enabled devices, content providers will publish more LBS applications and people will start to use it to make restaurant reservations, locate nearby friends nearby, access relevant coupons, and more."
4. Smartphone adoption in Europe will continue to explode
Research firm IDC expects that from 2006 until 2010, shipments of converged mobile devices in Western Europe will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 49.3%, the largest of all regions across the globe.
Currently, 15% of Handango's content downloads originate from consumers located in Western Europe. Handango operates localized storefronts under the Handango brand for France, Germany, and the UK, and as part of its core strategy of market expansion in Europe, the company recently launched Handango Italia and the http://handango.it Web site.
"The European market has experienced rapid growth in smartphones this year," said Eisenman. "We plan to put more focus on our localized Web sites to satisfy growing smartphone content requests, offering country-relevant applications from the Handango catalog."
5. Over-the-air (OTA) downloads will grow at a faster pace
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