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Almost 40% of smart phones shipping in EMEA have GPS integrated
- Battery life must improve to enable users to get the most from
their devices
Reading (UK) - Friday, 15 August 2008
For immediate release
- EMEA smart phone shipments reached 12.6 million in Q2 2008,
up 28% on the figure one year ago
- Growth slowed from Q1 2008, when it was 44%, to the lowest
figure seen for 18 months
- Despite this, it was the second biggest quarter on record
for smart phone shipments in the region
- 38% of these smart phones had built-in GPS, 58% had
integrated Wi-Fi
- Devices with touch screens represented 13% of the smart
phone market
Highlights from the Canalys Q2 2008 research
Growth slowed in the smart phone market in EMEA in Q2, but total
shipments of 12.6 million still made it the second biggest quarter
ever in volume terms. Canalys estimates that smart phones
represented 13% of all mobile phone shipments. Nokia remained the
market leader by some margin, but the other vendors in the top five
posted much higher than average year-on-year growth, with
second-placed RIM closing the market share gap by several points,
and HTC, Motorola and Samsung more than doubling their shipments.
Both HTC and RIM have been making steady progress toward the one
million shipments per quarter mark in EMEA and are now very close to
each other in market share terms, but it is possible that they will
be overtaken by Apple in Q3 following the launch of the iPhone 3G in
many countries in the region.
The smart phone market continues to be boosted by user demand for
high-end features. This is unlikely to be dramatically affected by
the economic situation in the short term, though operators will
likely become even more unwilling to heavily subsidise high-end
devices without adequate proof of return, and contract lengths and
the time between upgrades are expected to increase. Canalys
estimates that 58% of the smart phones that shipped in EMEA in Q2
had integrated Wi-Fi, 13% had stylus or finger-driven touch screens
and 38% had integrated GPS.
“Today, many owners are not making full use of their smart
phone’s features,” said Canalys senior analyst Pete Cunningham.
“Concern over usage costs is still a big barrier, though wider
availability of flat rate data plans will help, and usability still
needs to improve for certain applications on many devices. People
are also wary of draining their battery and not being able to make
calls. Battery life isn’t helped by having GPS and Wi-Fi turned on,
nor by having a large, bright screen for navigation or web browsing.
But there is clear demand for those features and applications, and
advances in battery technology would enable quite substantial
changes in usage patterns, with all the service revenue benefits
that would bring.”
Recent consumer research conducted by Canalys in several European
countries reinforces the importance of balancing features against
power consumption. In a survey of over 4,000 mobile phone users in
March, battery life came out as the aspect of their phone they were
least satisfied with. Another survey of 3,000 consumers in June
showed that having better battery life than current mobile phones
and notebooks would make two-thirds of respondents “more”, or “much
more”, likely to purchase a Mobile Internet Device (MID) – a device
designed for web browsing on the move. This registered as a stronger
influence than the inclusion of features such as GPS, mobile TV or
the ability to make phone calls.
As the number of GPS-equipped phones rises, adoption of
location-based services (LBS) becomes a more realistic prospect.
Canalys’ European consumer surveys also reveal interest in a variety
of such services. The most popular are those that relate to driving,
such as getting information on local road traffic, speed cameras,
open petrol stations and current fuel prices. The services that
fewest respondents thought would be useful were those that delivered
information on local cinemas and programme times, and local retail
price comparison and stock searches.
“Something that stood out in the latest survey was that those who
already owned a Portable Navigation Device (PND) showed only a
slight preference toward paying to have these services on their PND
rather than on their mobile phone,” commented Canalys analyst Tim
Shepherd. “There is already quite high acceptance in principle that
even key driving-related location services would be delivered to the
phone.”
With 4.8 million PNDs shipping in EMEA in Q2, and 4.7 million
integrated GPS smart phones, it is clear that PND vendors will have
to adapt quickly to the rising threat posed by phone-based
navigation solutions and location-based services, even if most of
those GPS phones today are not being used for vehicle navigation.
Location, map-based applications and the future of navigation
will be key topics of the EMEA Canalys Navigation Forum, being held
in Budapest, Hungary on 8–10 September 2008. Sessions will look at
location-based mobile advertising, the role of dynamic and
location-aware content, the future of connected devices and
services, and PND differentiation. Presentations will also analyse
the navigation value chain in more depth and explore the interaction
needed between mobile operators, vendors and content owners.
To find out more about this key industry event, please visit
http://emea.canalysnavigationforum.com. There are a limited
number of complimentary places still available for accredited press.
To take advantage of this unique opportunity to gain access to
industry experts and insight into this changing market please
request a place, registering as press
here.
About the Canalys services
The shipment estimates discussed in this release come from the
market-leading Canalys Smart Mobile Device Analysis and Mobile
Navigation Analysis services. The consumer research quoted comes
from the Consumer Mobility Analysis service. Canalys’ globally
consistent market segmentations and definitions are used by vendors
the world over to provide a coherent view of the total market for
smart phones and mobile navigation solutions. Clients receive
quarterly market updates, regular reports, trends presentations,
webcasts, forecasts and direct access to Canalys analysts. Canalys
offers services looking at the navigation and smart phone markets by
country in APAC, North and Latin America and EMEA, as well as
providing global market overviews and survey-based analysis of
consumer and enterprise attitudes and preferences toward mobile
applications, devices and services. More information is available
here.
About Canalys
Canalys specialises in delivering high quality market data,
analysis and advice to the world’s leading technology vendors. It is
recognised as a key provider of continuous advisory services and
confidential custom projects for marketing managers and strategists
within blue-chip IT, telecoms, navigation and consumer electronics
companies. It has unrivalled expertise in routes to market for all
kinds of high technology products and services in the consumer, SMB
and large enterprise segments, and provides worldwide market data
and trends analysis.
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