The Hindu Business Line : Smartphones to grab 70% market share by 2010

Pune June 8 Smartphones have now become the norm of the day, especially with the people continuously on the move and those who want to keep in touch with the office mails.

InStat, a market research firm, has stated that about 18 million smartphones have been sold in the APAC region in 2006 and is expected to increase to 64.2 million by 2010.

As per IDC, 70 per cent of mobile devices would be smartphones by 2010. Currently the market for smartphones is 38 per cent.

Mr Sumeet Gugnani, India Business Head, Windows Mobile and Mobility, Microsoft India, told Business Line that the offering from Microsoft, Windows Mobile, is a flexible platform for operators to bring new services to the market as also to prioritise and organise their work and personal life. It has been available in India since January 2006.

Windows vs Blackberry

According to IDC, Windows has a market share of 17.2 per cent against its competitor, Blackberry, which has 11.6 per cent market share in 2006.

It has also reported that Microsoft's global converged mobile devices shipment grew 135.3 per cent year on year in 2006. It has crossed three million last year and is estimated to grow by 80 per cent this year.

Mr Sumeet said that in India, Windows is having sales of about 7,000 to 8,000 units per month compared with about 4,000 units a month of Blackberry. The target fornext year is to touch two lakh units a year.

PDA boom

Industry experts feel that India would see a boom in the PDA (personal digital assistant) segment. The driving factors for the increasing use of smartphones is the need for real-time access to information and on-demand access to applications such as e-mail, calendar, contact and other information round the clock.

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