Cell Phones and a Cashless Society

iPhone, the Gold Standard

June 7, 2010

Reuters - The iPhone -- introduced in 2007 and creating the touchscreen, on-demand application template now adopted by its rivals -- remains the gold standard in the smartphone market.

The smartphone market is exploding. According to research group Gartner, global sales rose nearly 50 percent in the first quarter. The iPhone has boosted Apple's margins, transforming the company into one of the world's leading mobile device makers and setting the competitive landscape in a smartphone battle that will play out for years.

Apple sold a record 8.75 million iPhones in its latest quarter. accounting for 40 percent of its revenue. With margins estimated at 60 percent, it is Apple's prime growth driver, helping margins climb to a record 41.7 percent in the most recent quarter from 34 percent in fiscal 2007.

On Monday, Jobs strutted about the stage and whipped up the crowd into a near-frenzy -- stopping short only when his demo choked up in mid-stride and he demanded that the audience power down laptops to free up wireless-network bandwidth.

But the competition is wising up.

Only last year, Research in Motion Ltd was seen as Apple's top rival. While the company's BlackBerry remains the smartphone of choice for many corporations that need fast email, Apple has made strides in that market as security concerns addressed by the BlackBerry have eased.

Now, new competitors are designing high-powered handsets based on Google's Android software, offering fast, web-surfing and video-enabled phones with access to thousands of apps.

The iPhone's global share surged to more than 15 percent in the first quarter, making it No. 3 in cellphones. Phones based on Android ranked No. 4 with close to 10 percent of the market, a huge increase from the previous year and gaining, Gartner data show.

Gartner said Android beat Apple in the North American market in the first quarter and would catch the iPhone maker globally soon.

Many analysts believe Apple may have also struck gold with its newest gadget, the iPad, which could provide another growth engine to complement the iPhone. The iPad launched in April and has already sold more than 2 million units.

The iPhone and iPad are linked by a common operating system. The latest version of that software -- complete with the long-awaited multi-tasking function and Apple's iAd ad network -- will ship on the newest iPhone model.

In the United States, Wall Street and consumers alike are also anticipating an iPhone on the network of Verizon Wireless, the No. 1 phone company and a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc. Most analysts expect a Verizon iPhone some time next year, or perhaps as early as this fall.

One in Five Mobile Phones to Feature NFC by 2012

June 4, 2010

NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com - Licensing deals signed by Innovision will see NFC functionality being built into 15% to 20% of the handsets shipped in 2012, says the company, as leading mobile phone chipset manufacturers look for low cost ways to add NFC into mass market mobile phones.

Both ABI Research and IMS Research, meanwhile, have produced new five year forecasts of the NFC market. While both forecasts differ widely — IMS says 785 million NFC chips will ship in 2015 while ABI forecasts a more cautious 300 million — it's becoming clearer every week that NFC is now very much here to stay.

Innovision Signs $6M IP Licensing Deal

June 4, 2010

NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com - Earlier this week Innovision unveiled a new generation of its Gem NFC IP, a suite of designs, patents and know-how which together form a complete on-chip NFC sub-system designed to enable NFC functionality to be added at low cost to mass-market mobile phones and other devices. The company expects that 15% to 20% of all the handsets shipped in 2012 will include the company's low-cost NFC technology.

"This is an important milestone for the company as we further proliferate adoption of our IP into very high volume markets with major global players, while at the same time minimising the need to add large engineering teams for customisation as we have been doing to date," says chief executive David Wollen.

Discover, MasterCard certify new mobile contactless stickers from Inside and CPI
IMS forecasts 785 million NFC chips to ship in 2015
300 million NFC chips to ship in 2015, says ABI