Gartner identifies top 10 mobile technologies for 2011
Thursday, 25 March 2010, 15:30 IST   |    4 Comments
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Gartner identifies top 10 mobile technologies for 2011
New Delhi: The research firm Gartner has outlined top 10 mobile technologies that will evolve significantly through 2011 to affect the short-term mobile strategies and policies, reports the Economic Times. By 2011, over 85 percent of the handsets shipped globally will include some form of browser. In mature markets such as Western Europe and Japan, about 60 percent of the handsets shipped will be smartphones with sophisticated browsing capability and the ability to render conventional HTML sites in some manner. "Mobile technologies will evolve in ways that affect corporate strategies, significant numbers of customers or employees will adopt or expect them, or they will address particular mobile challenges that organisations will face through 2011," said Nick Jones, Vice-President and Analyst at Gartner. By the end of 2011, over 75 percent of devices shipped in mature markets will include a GPS. GPS will be the primary, but not the only, means of establishing handset locations. Wi-Fi and cell ID systems will remain important in situations where GPS is unavailable or unreliable. According to Gartner, two new versions of Bluetooth wireless technology will emerge by 2011. Bluetooth 3 will emerge to enable faster data transmission, and Bluetooth 4 will introduce a new low-energy (LE) mode that will enable communication with external peripherals and sensors. Both versions will include other technical improvements to improve battery life and security. Gartner believes that Bluetooth 3 will facilitate corporate and consumer functions demanding large bandwidth like downloading images and videos from handsets. Bluetooth LE will enable a range of new sensor-based business models in industries such as fitness, healthcare and environmental control. Mobile widgets will also become popular. Widgets are installable web applications that use technologies such as JavaScript and HTML. Many handsets support widgets running on their home screens, where they are easily visible and accessible. Mobile platforms will become more diverse through 2012, although consolidation will not have started, and in some markets, five or more platforms may have a significant presence. App stores also provide a range of business support functions, such as payment processing that assist smaller organisations. They will be a distribution channel for mobile applications and a commercial channel to sell applications and content, especially in international markets. Many applications will exploit eco-system cloud services. Touchscreens are emerging as the dominant user interface for large-screen handsets and will be included in over 60 percent of the mobile devices shipped in Western Europe and North America in 2011. In 2010-11, the availability of multi-megabit wireless broadband performance will continue to grow, because mobile networks enhance their broadband performance. Embedded cellular networking will become a standard feature of many corporate laptops, and will enable new types of network-connected devices and business models such as e-books and media players.

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