UK: What will be the most popular handset this Xmas?

I posted not so long ago with some potential contenders for the most popular handset that will be found in presents this Xmas; but wanted to follow-up with some category suggestions, to if any you agree – or maybe have your own categories. The “winner” (most popular) could come from any of the ‘categories’, much as per the style of a popular TV talent show….(UK readers will get that comment…).

So, what are our categories, and who are the “mentors” of each? See below:

Smartphones – Mentor: Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)
Yep, smartphones are going to continue their meteoric rise and fly off the shelves this Christmas, because now there are lots of consumer friendly models, in the form of the iPhone, Samsung Omnia, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N96, and others. Apple is the “mentor” for the category due to their phenomenal success with iPhone this (and last) year….

Feature phones (camera/music) – Mentor: Sony Ercisson
If smartphones don’t end up selling the most this year, it might be because of price. However, lots of vendors have a mid-tier strategy, and are looking for differentiation. Sticking a stupendous camera, or stack of memory for music, in their devices is always a good way to differentiate – though not innovate any more.
Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) are this category mentor, since they have their own brands in these spaces – Cyber-shot for camera, and Walkman for music. Of course, there are many pretenders to the throne, but we’ll have to see who comes out strongest

“Budget” phones – Mentor: Nokia
In the cost-down category, we are looking at devices in the £5-£100 range, which now includes some fairly advanced devices on prepay. No-one has the scale of economics like Nokia to be able to throw mass volume at a given segment, no matter what it is – and they are right at the leading edge of cheap phones too – which a number of their previously most popular phones are well in to now…. so Nokia is the mentor on the budget phones

So those are the categories – any thoughts on the winning device, and also the winning category?. I am going to go with Sony Ericsson this year, in the feature phone category, since people looking for a good phone with a good music player and/or camera, will surely choose this brand…. Your thoughts?

(Footnote: I hope there will be some stats or stories in the new year on who sold the most – maybe from an Operator perspective, or other) – and we’ll see who the winners and losers were….!)

[Image via: Wikipedia]