Disqus
ABI Research’s latest report took a look at the growing popularity of touchscreen devices and what their future is looking like. Since 2006, shipments have nearly doubled, and forecasts are claiming a $5 billion market in 2009. As promising as that sounds, the increasing adoption differs widely according to geography. For example, Samsung and Motorola are rocking roughly a third of the touchscreen market each because they’ve effectively targeted Asia, which is ready to adopt something with easy character recognition. On the other side of the coin, BlackBerry’s had a rough time in Japan exactly because input is considerably trickier on a QWERTY device. The iPhone is obviously doing its fair share to improve the popularity of touchscreens and intuitive user interface is a big factor for shoppers, it’s still considered a niche compared to the big boys. I’m curious to see if the recently-scoped BlackBerry 9500 will suffer the same fate, or if it will have better luck with the mainstream…
[via ABI]
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
