“Mobile providers must up their game

Tuesday, 29 June 2010

 As Apple launches the iPhone 4 in the UK, the battle for the lucrative business user is intensifying as the devices become increasingly commoditised. Recent Gartner research reveals that the first quarter of 2010 had the strongest year-on-year increase since 2006 with worldwide Smartphone sales reaching 54.3 million units. With Smartphones becoming so widely available, the challenge now facing the networks is how to win the market share of the business user.

Smartphone devices have become hugely popular with consumers, with Apple reporting the first quarter of 2010 as their strongest yet with a 112.2% increase in mobile device sales. This is expected to increase as the consumers look forward to the latest iPhone 4 features, including a 5 megapixel camera, better screen and front and rear cameras for FaceTime video calling. However the experience for the business user is still unfulfilling.

Mark Seemann, Product Strategy & Development Director for leading unified communications and Cloud Computing provider, Outsourcery said: “There is a greater need for sophistication; business mobiles need business applications and features. The business Smartphone market is currently dominated by BlackBerry mainly because it is leading the way with mobile email capabilities. The jury is still out on whether RIM will be leapfrogged by the iPhone 4 with its improved battery life and tightened security, or whether RIM can create new capabilities for their devices and maintain their lead in the business space. The iPhone 4 has features that will have dramatic ramifications for the mobile network provider, all of which must up their game and provide optimised, high speed connections and even champion the adoption of 4G.”

He continued: “The most significant feature is the new multi-tasking capability allowing multiple applications to run in the background. This is crucial for unified communications, because now an iPhone user can be automatically alerted of incoming chat, voice and video calls, while using the phone to do something else – which was impossible with the earlier model! Apple have made a serious effort in pushing the boundaries of unified communications by delivering video calling to the masses, but the video calling application only works on Wi-Fi and these advances in technology will only be useful if the mobile networks optimise their existing 3G networks to support video and voice over IP, or eventually upgrading them to 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology.”

He concludes: “One thing is for sure, the Smartphone wars have plenty of sequels yet to play out.”

4G LTE technology is already being tested by mobile networks across the globe including Verizon in the USA and O2 in the UK and can offer speeds of up to 40mb download and 2mb upload – more than sufficient for good quality video conferencing and video calling.

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