News / Mobile
2008 handset competition: a contemporary forecast
At the start of 2008, MultiMedia Intelligence expected handset competition to shift beyond voice hardware toward software, media and internet services.
From calls to applications
The analyst’s view was that phones were becoming multimedia devices for browsing, email and music as well as calls. It placed the iPhone’s public impact and the promise of Android in the same wider change toward application-centred handsets.
Who would control the value
The forecast anticipated a contest among handset makers, platform providers and network operators over data, content and application income. It described openness as a pressure on operators that wanted to protect returns from their network investment.
A forecast rooted in 2008
The projections and market figures belong to the article’s original moment. They should be read as an industry expectation before the first Android handsets and later changes in mobile platforms, rather than as a present market assessment.