Bango 2010 highlights and 2011 mobile industry predictions

Not only has 2010 been described as the year of the tablet, but also the year of Apple Vs Android. The year started with the launch of the Apple iPad and is ending with Android tablets appearing all over the globe, being delivered by the likes of Samsung, Toshiba and Dell. In fact, with the price of tablets being subsidized by some carrier providers on both sides of the Atlantic, a large volume of stock is expected to shift in the run up to Christmas.

On the smartphones space, competition has also been hotting up during 2010. Despite Apple’s perceived iPhone dominance, more smartphone players have entered the market to challenge Apple’s position, resulting in them losing ground. In August this year Bango reported a surge in web browsing from Android phones, with HTC, Samsung and Sony Ericsson all experiencing an increase in the volumes of web visits.

So let’s go into more detail and wrap up this year, looking at some of the interesting highlights of 2010, plus some of the predictions for what it will certainly be a very exciting year for mobile.

2010:

Android Tablet

– Year of the tablet.

· Year started with Apple iPad and ended with Android tablets starting to appear from Samsung, Toshiba, Dell and others

· Further proof that the whole world has gone mobile now

· Carriers starting to subsidize the costs increases volumes

– BlackBerry AppWorld delivers on their promise of simple carrier billing by selecting Bango worldwide

· Live with first operators and delivering impressive results

· Android, Palm/HP, Windows, Nokia all struggle to commercialize their App stores

– Microsoft re-boots their mobile strategy with Windows Phone 7 and gets good reviews for a first version

– Increase in Wi-Fi usage – 40% of users now connect to the internet on their phones via Wi-Fi. This is driven by the popularity of tablets with no operator connection and more smartphone users choosing to connect via free Wi-Fi

– Android overtakes Apple in volume smart phone sales, Motorola starts making money again as a result

– Mobile browsers start to match PC capabilities, including Flash (apart from Apple of course)

– PC’s are history – today’s youth access the internet from phones more than PCs (Opera)

– Mobile advertising comes of age

· Google snapped up AdMob

· Cutting edge ad networks and agencies select Bango Analytics for independent measurement they can rely on

· Large brands rely on Bango for numbers – CNN Mobile reported mobile stats using Bango, seeing a surge in traffic during the coverage of the Chilean miners rescue and the US Election Day

2011:

– Tablets round 2 – early 2011 release for BlackBerry Playbook, rumour of new iPad 2 early in the year, HP PalmOS tablet, plus lots more Android tablets pick up the volume

– Many more app stores add carrier billing to make it easy for consumers to purchase

– The growth in the number of app stores continues – Acer Alive is on its way

– Major ad networks and agencies follow the lead and realize that they need real mobile analytics (and not PC solutions like Omniture)

– HTML5 – More brands choose mobile web sites over native apps to take advantage of HTML5 richer browser capabilities…but apps remain on the mobile scene, for now

– App developers and brands will start experimenting more with in-app billing models – Bango forecasts in-app revenue growth of 600% in 2011

– SMS as a mechanism for billing will start to be replaced by web based systems that can be more customer friendly and reliable, as the internet becomes available to a substantial majority of phone users

– Rumours of a Nokia take over by Microsoft become a reality, bringing in a third competitor to Apple and Android in the smartphone market