Will smartphones be outsmarted by tablets?

While smartphone has been around since late 1990s, its form and technology have gone through many stages of evolution, and till today, manufacturers are still coming up with new features that continue to excite the consumers. As recent as a few years ago, the infrastructure of most mobile operators were still supporting GPRS and 2G network. With 3G and data network not yet fully ready for the mass, portable communication devices were not common, and even if they were available, did not come with favourable user experiences and affordable tariff plans.

It wasn’t until 2007 when the first successful smartphone entered the scene. The iPhone managed to alter the entire industry, changing the whole consumer experience towards mobile phone by marrying the concept of business and entertainment phones with ease of accessibility (touch screen), richer screen solution and customised usage (apps) into a single device. More and more manufacturers also jumped onto the bandwagon to cash in on this According to GfK, there were already nine models of smartphones by six manufacturers in Singapore as early as January 2009. Today, we have 14 device makers producing 145 models of smartphones.universal phenomenon.

Today, smartphones are widely available and based on GfK data, it will continue to see a rising adoption trend. Gone are the days where handphone makers only producing basic phones for users. Instead they are increasingly looking towards collaborating with third parties (such as app developers, search engines) to deliver integrated platform of services and information. We are already starting to see such phenomenon—the acquisition of Motorola by Google and of Sony and Sony Ericssion are good examples.

Today, device makers are also looking beyond the form factor and traditional hardware specs such as camera resolution – which are now considered hygiene factors. Instead, improved features such as operating systems, mobility of information and entertainment have shown to be key factors that drive sales of smartphones. GfK data supports empirical evidence that prior to iPad, there was a ‘missing gap’ between the 5” to 10” segment of portable devices which today is occupied by the iPad, Galaxy Tab, HTC Flyer, Motorola Zoom and Acer Iconia. Unlike smartphones which has been cannibalising the share of feature phones, the tablet is a different product category that is less likely to erode the sales of either the smartphones or latptop.

As the tablet market is heating up with the product gaining more traction among users, we can expect to see more competition among phone makers, PC makers and even TV makers.

There are signs in the market that point to the likelihood of integrating services-by-subscription model between mobile operators (Singtel, Starhub, M1), content providers (SPH, MediaCorp) and device makers (phones, IT, TV). Recently, MediaCorp in Singapore announced that they are testing the beta version of such service. Given that IDA has already put in place the framework for Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (NGNBN) as well as investing in hardware infrastructure for the past two years, users in Singapore will be able to look forward to such customised services in their mobile devices that are linked to home usage.