Smartphone Trends 2011

In 2011, yesteryear's high-end smartphones will become this year's entry level. As suppliers offer smartphones at lower prices — often less than €100 on prepay — the smartphone will become mainstream. Just a year ago, touchscreen featurephones dominated these price points. Now, European midmarket buyers will adopt smartphones, often without realizing they're smartphones. This will drive app and mobile Internet adoption; smartphones will be an essential platform for product strategies. At the high end, we'll see much faster devices become common, with dual core chips, offering full high-definition video. The Era of Experience will lead to innovative use of smartphone sensors to deliver intelligent automatic behaviors. The smartphone will become the crucible for disruptive innovation. Many trends that start on the smartphone will ripple into adjacent markets. Techniques to monetize media will be exported to the PC. Multiple tablets will launch running smartphone software. Smartphone apps will link to connected TVs. Understanding the smartphone's future will help everyone understand the future of everything else and so build successful strategies.