IDC sees single-digit handset market growth in '08
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Market researcher IDC expects growth  in the global market for mobile phones to slow to single digits  from this year onwards after unit sales rose 11.6 percent last  quarter, it said in a statement on Friday.
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The world's biggest mobile handset  maker, Nokia (NOK1V.HE), repeated on Monday it expects the  cellphone market to grow overall by up to 10 percent in 2007.
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Nokia Oyj, the world's largest maker of cellphones, said the number of mobile phone subscribers will climb to 4 billion by 2010, spurred by wireless Internet, television, and navigation services.
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Trying to regain some of its lost market share, Nokia Corp. is hoping to woo both enterprise and consumer customers with a lighter, sleeker version of its high-end Communicator handset that will be released worldwide at the beginning of next year, the company announced Wednesday.
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Web search leader Google Inc   is expected to announce advanced software and services enabling  handset makers to bring Google-powered phones to market by  mid-2008, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing  people familiar with the matter.
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InfoWorld - New research has confirmed that India&#39;s mobile phone market is set for a period of fast growth, with revenue from cellular services expected to jump by more than 18 percent each year for the next five years.
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More cell phones than ever were shipped in the fourth quarter, with the industry growing 24 percent over the same quarter last year, the technology research firm IDC reported Thursday.
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The global mobile phone market is expected to see a slow down in market growth due to the lack of additional catalysts, US high tech market research firm IDC warned on Tuesday.
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Mobile phones are expected to generate more money this year than traditional fixed-line services for the first time due to surging demand in developing countries such as China, India and Russia, an annual industry report said.
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Few service providers are stepping forward to assist businesses with mobile services, according to an IDC survey.
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An anonymous reader writes &quot;Market research company IDC is predicting a rosy future for MP3 player sales. They predict that by 2008 it will grow into a $58 billion industry - four times bigger than the US record industry.
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IDC on Wednesday painted an optimistic outlook for Linux over the next few years, predicting that overall revenue for desktops, servers, and Linux-compatible packaged software will reach $35 billion by 2008.
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(InfoWorld) - Palm Inc. began taking orders for its Treo 680 smartphone on Wednesday, hoping to expand from its core business customers to a larger market of casual, first-time users. Palm is charging US$399 for the "unlocked" version of the phone, allowing users to subscribe to any carrier, and plans to begin shipping the phones shortly after Dec. 1. One carrier has already announced a plan for the phone -- Cingular Wireless LLC will begin selling the Treo 680 for $199 on Friday. Palm hopes to attract a new demographic by designing the Treo 680 with an internal antenna, making it slimmer than previous models, and offering it in four colors, according to a statement by John Hartnett, Palm's senior vice president of global markets. In another bid for those casual customers, Palm has moved beyond purely business functions, and will offer entertainment applications like the ability to show Flash-based movies such as those seen on the YouTube Web site, and to play MP3 songs through a 30-day trial of Yahoo Inc.'s mobile, digital music service. New users might also appreciate the Google Maps function, which offers personalized driving directions or addresses for nearby restaurants. "Location-based services hold great promise in a wide variety of areas, such as helping friends find each other, helping advertisers more effectively target prospects, and even ensuring that no man ever has to stop for directions again," said Avi Greengart, principal analyst for mobile devices with Current Analysis. As a phone, the Palm OS-based device operates on the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) networks. Palm hopes the Treo 680 will help it to grow beyond its roots in the slow-growing PDA (personal digital assistant) market, and claim a greater share of the burgeoning smartphone industry. Smartphone shipments worldwide grew 75.5 percent to 34.7 million units in the first half of 2006, according to research firm Gartner Inc. In comparison, PDA sales grew only 5.7 percent to 7.4 million units. North America is the only region where PDAs continue to outsell smartphones, so Palm hopes its new product has arrived in U.S. markets in time to catch a wave of people upgrading to the new technology. With only 5 percent of the worldwide market for combined PDA and smartphone markets, Palm needs the Treo 680 to be a financial success in order to compete with its larger rivals. Nokia Corp. is the largest vendor, with 42 percent market share, followed by Research in Motion Ltd. with 6.5 percent and Motorola Inc. with 5.3 percent, according to Gartner. Posting strong sales through the holiday season will be crucial for that plan, as Gartner predicts smartphones sales will continue to rise, totaling 81 million for the full year of 2006. That growth will be fueled by a jump in consumer demand, focused on individual details like fashion and multimedia, according to a statement by Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza. Â
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(InfoWorld) - The number of BlackBerry account holders reached 6.2 million at the beginning of September as Research In Motion reported revenue up 34 percent -- but market researcher IDC said trouble may lie ahead for the company. RIM warned of some problems on its own on Thursday. The Waterloo, Ontario, company became the latest to announce a review of its options-granting practices, and said it could restate earnings to reduce them by between $25 million and $45 million over the period since its public offering in 1997. The company also said its fiscal second quarter financial results, which it announced Thursday, will be considered preliminary until the results of the options probe are known. RIM's revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 2 rose to $658.5 million, from $490.1 million during the same quarter last year. Net profit was $140.8 million. Approximately 72 percent of its revenue came from handhelds, 19 percent for service, 6 percent for software, and 3 percent for other revenue, RIM said. The company added 705,000Â new BlackBerry subscriber accountsÂ in the quarter. RIM expects even strongerÂ subscriber growthÂ in the current quarter, which ends Dec. 2. The company forecast it would add 800,000 accounts, taking it to 7 million subscribers. Market researcher IDC, however, rained on RIM's strong announcement. In a report titled "Attack of the BlackBerry Clones", IDC said the popular handheld faces growing competition "in a relatively untapped market, converged mobile devices for the enterprise." As that market grows to 63 million units per year by 2010 from just 7.3 million last year, the BlackBerry's overall share will decline, according to IDC. While RIM has set the standard in the industry, Microsoft is coming on strong through partnerships withÂ Motorola, Palm, and others. As the market for converged mobile devices grows, IDC expects Windows Mobile handhelds to grab an increasing share of the pie, for a 32.3 percent share of the market by 2010. Nokia is another major rival to watch out for in the future, since it is already offering an end-to-end solution of its own, IDC said. "Several BlackBerry clones have previously attempted to challenge RIM's reign in the enterprise market, but this is a more formidable strike," said Sean Ryan, research analyst for IDC's Mobile Markets, in a statement. "The timing is right for a more powerful attack against RIM's BlackBerry as competitive forces converge." Â
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Google-powered phones to arrive mid-2008 with bundled services and open APIs, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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CHEJU, South Korea  - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.   005930.KS said on Thursday it sees global mobile phone sales   growing faster than expected this year while its own handset   sales would meet its target.
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Sales of portable digital-audio players are booming, and IDC predicts the market will generate $58 billion by 2008. The research firm says Apple&#39;s iPod will continue to be a major participant