If you look back seven to eight years the mobile phone market was dominated by Nokia. They had penetrated wide and deep and offered phones from the top end of the industry to the bottom. The picture now is very different. There are far more serious players in the industry, and Nokia has fallen off top spot.
Nowadays, the market is distributed between 3 main types of phone. There are basic phones that are really just for talking and texting. There are feature phones, which are for talking, texting, and may include FM radio and a camera, and then there are smartphones with additional functionality that goes far beyond basic and feature phones.
The smart phone market
The smartphone market is broadly split up into budget, mid-range, and premium phones.
Budget phones
Budget phones come in different shapes and sizes. They generally retail on pay-as-you-go for at/or below £100 and offer a certain amount of functionality. They may offer Internet connectivity, a decent camera, and will be on Android, Windows, Blackberry operating system and maybe in the future, IOS from Apple. There are obviously a huge range of phones in this category.
Mid-range phones
Mid-range phones come with a bit more power. They can multi-task much better than budget phones and do much more by way of CPU intensive activities. Most are touch screen phones and they are better for social networking, consuming media, generally having higher specifications. You can find some really terrific phones in this price range. Interestingly, Apple are looking to enter this market in the future with an iPhone priced between the budget and premium end.
The premium end
Premium end phones are frankly quite amazing these days. You can multi-task seamlessly, swipe across from application to application, page to page without any stuttering or sluggishness. You can take pictures up to 13 mega pixels, and you can work on the go through the many applications available.
Phones cost £400 and more and really do mean you have a computer in your pocket.
The main players
The main players in the market these days are Samsung, Apple, HTC, Motorola, Nokia, LG, Sony, ZTE, Huawei, and Blackberry. At the top end of the industry, Apple has done remarkably well with the iPhone series now coming towards their 6th release in 2013. Samsung have also produced some of the best phones in the form of the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Note II.
HTC have dropped away a little bit, but are producing cracking phones at the moment despite the challenges they have faced. The Droid DNA and OneX from HYC have been met with widespread acclaim.
Sea-change and future ship wrecks
The landscape in the market has changed markedly over recent years. 2013 will be a year of consolidation in the market for some and a real struggle for others. Consumers are becoming more technically aware, and new innovation has to happen in almost every flagship phone just to stay in the game.
Blackberry suffered markedly in the sector by not innovating and moving fast enough in line with the sentiment of the consumer public. The innovation and creativity in the market spells one thing to consumers, the coming of more terrific phones. For some manufacturers 2013 could be the year that they sink.
Phil Turner has found a touch screen phone that he can use! It has taken a long time, but Phil is ready to buy a smartphone.
