Skip to main content

Mobile Broadband Market Powered by OS Ecosystems

Infonetics Research released excerpts from its second quarter (2Q11) mobile broadband devices and subscribers report -- which tracks the market performance of smartphones, mobile broadband PC cards, embedded mobile broadband cards and devices, mobile broadband routers, and mobile broadband subscribers.

"The clear synergy between smartphones and tablets, with their shared touchscreen features and common application environments, make them by far the hottest segments of the mobile broadband device market," said Richard Webb, Infonetics Research directing analyst for microwave and small cells.

Just as Apple iPhone users are more likely to buy an iPad as their tablet, so too are Android users more likely to buy Android-based tablets.

It is increasingly important for vendors to have a strong portfolio in both market segments to leverage this synergy.

Highlights from Infonetics latest market study include:
  • A total of $31.4 billion was spent on smartphones in 2Q11, down 1.4 percent from the previous quarter despite unit shipments being up about 2 percenet, indicating unit-price erosion impeded revenue growth.
  • Infonetics expects global smartphone revenue to grow 31 percent in 2011 over 2010, to $117 billion.
  • Apple's stronger volumes and higher ARPU helped increase its global smartphone revenue share every quarter thus far in 2011, now at 36 percent of the smartphone market in 2Q11.
  • HTC and Samsung leapfrogged into 2nd and 3rd place, respectively, in the global smartphone market in 2Q11, ahead of RIM and Nokia.
  • Combined across all vendors, Android continues to be the number one smartphone operating system (OS) in the world, used in nearly half of all smartphones shipped worldwide.
  • The mobile device OS ecosystem is still one of the most influential drivers of the mobile broadband marketplace.

Popular posts from this blog

Why AI Budgets Miss a $9.2 Billion Storage Problem

The worldwide external enterprise storage systems market reached a key point in the first quarter of 2026, and the implications for organizations running Applied-AI initiatives are impossible to ignore. IDC's latest market study reveals that systems grew 22.7 percent year-over-year to $9.2 billion, a dramatic acceleration from the 3.9 percent full-year 2025 growth rate. For enterprise leaders who have spent the past two years prioritizing GPU clusters and server infrastructure while treating storage as a secondary consideration, this data should serve as actionable guidance. The storage bottleneck in AI deployment is no longer theoretical, and the market dynamics now unfolding will directly shape the cost, timeline, and architectural viability of AI programs through at least 2027. Storage Systems Market Development The first quarter of 2026 produced several milestones that demand the attention of any organization with active or planned AI infrastructure investments. All Flash Array...