The most significant growth in wireless handset markets will occur at the top and bottom ends of the price and features range, as the smartphone and low-cost handset categories expand at the expense of the mid-range models commonly called "enhanced" phones. The enhanced phone sector is currently the largest in terms of shipments: 2007 saw 854 million units shipped. But ... continued »

Despite the fact that no LTE (Long Term Evolution) network is expected to be commercial before 2010, a new study from ABI Research forecasts that by 2013, there will be more than 32 million subscribers using LTE networks. Three of the largest mobile operators - China Mobile, Vodafone and Verizon Wireless - have announced plans to adopt LTE. continued »

Traditionally, security alarm systems used fixed telephone lines to pass information from the security alarm panel to a central monitoring facility. Today, however, that communication is increasingly being delegated to a digital cellular link. ABI Research forecasts that the 2007 number of just fewer than 2.5 million wireless security alarm connections will increase to more than 7.5 million in 2013. continued »

"Though China's government has yet to issue its 3G licenses and telecom restructuring is still ongoing, TD-SCDMA is now live," reports ABI Research analyst Hwai Lin Khor. "After many years of research and development, and many trials conducted by China Mobile, the 3G service has made a 'soft' launch in eight cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shenzhen starting ... continued »

Linux, which has been much maligned by Symbian and Microsoft as a non-starter in the handset operating system market, is set to see strong growth as issues with framework fragmentation and silicon requirements are alleviated. The growing momentum behind the LiMo Foundation initiative, as well as the marketing boost that has been realized from the entry of Google's Android solution ... continued »

A very complex mobile value chain and a growing business reliance on mobile products have created the need for services that help businesses maximize the value of their mobile investments. In a recent report from ABI Research, mobile device management (MDM) services are forecast to grow from $583 million in 2007 to over $20 billion by 2013, for a compound ... continued »

While a large number of phones today still use browsers with very limited web browsing capabilities, many smartphones are incorporating browsers that support the latest capabilities such as AJAX and RSS, as well as websites optimized for viewing on a mobile device. ABI Research sees this segment of the mobile browser market accounting for the vast majority of growth over ... continued »

Mobile operators in the United States have begun offering their subscribers flat-rate, all-you-can-eat service pricing plans. These are intended to reduce customer churn and attract new subscribers, and they frequently succeed. But according to ABI Research, operators should beware of the risks such plans pose to their network and backhaul capacity. continued »