gmtPLUS09 | live from Seoul

It’s interesting to see trend forecasts for the mobile industry.  For being in Korea, where the leading mobile telecom sector and local market has already experienced what Mako Analysis says are trends for 2006. While we may not have GSM-based 3G variants, the CDMA-based mobile technologies has brought product and service offerings my friends in the States can only dream about. The Korean mobile phones are atleast a year or two (my assumptions thus far) ahead of what you can get in the States. I’m at a loss when it comes to what (and how many) new features make it to other markets, as well as how local markets perceive them.

Below are Mako’s findings:

*The current popular device colours of black
and pink will be joined by a wide range of shades that will be used to
extend the shelf life of many of the key device lines released through
the year

*Despite industry hype, 2006 will not be the year of HSDPA

*Bluetooth connectivity will finally penetrate into low end device segments, where as infrared will start to be phased out

*3G will finally meet high end 2G levels of device weight and size

*Mobile music will form a key battleground for handset manufacturers but the winners and losers will surprise many

*Camera technology will see many advances with up to 5 mega pixel models emerging in 2006

Link: Mako Analysis: Handset Trends 2006.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2006 at 11:00 am and is filed under Gadgets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.