Mobile phones had a long history. The last three decades of mobile phones is quite amazing. Check out this infographic.
Category Archives: Technology
World’s biggest mobile phone manufacturers in Q3 2012
ABI research came out with it’s extensive list of world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturers. Most of the research firms just list the top 5 mobile phone suppliers, but ABI research came out with the extensive list of world’s 11 biggest mobile phone manufactures and the number of handsets they shipped in Q3 2012.
Third quarter 2012 market share by OEM
OEM shipments from first quarter 2010 to the third quarter 2012
Overall smartphone shipments vs. non smartphones
Analysis from ABI Research
| Vendor | Shipments | Analysis |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung | 102.6 million | In Q3 Samsung extended its handset leadership over Nokia and its smartphone leadership over Apple with over 55 million smartphones shippped. Although shipments of the Galaxy S III started in Q2, shipments of the S III have already reached 30 million and with the Note II coming to market, Samsung is likely to have another record quarter in Q4. |
| Nokia | 82.9 million | Considering the fact that Nokia's Windows Phone 7 devices were made obsolete by the Windows Phone 8 announcement, it is surprising that Nokia was able to muster 6.3 million in smartphone shipments in Q3. On the feature phone side, Nokia's line of Asha handsets continued to find market success for consumers looking for a "smartphone-like" experience. |
| Apple | 26.9 million | While a slowdown in Q3 shipments was expected, it was assumed that the launch of the iPhone 5 would bring Apple back to it's old 80 percent growth levels. Unfortunately, the initial sales of the iPhone 5 were a little muted due to the limited number of lauch countries in Q3. ABI Research believes that even with a blockbuster quarter of 50 million iPhones in Q4, Apple will not be able to reach the growth rates of its past. |
| ZTE | 17.6 million | Even with a slight dip in shipments, ZTE was able to capture the fourth position in Q3 after breaking into the top five for the first time last quarter. Having risen from the realm of low-cost handsets and low-end smartphones, ZTE's structure is well adapted to winning market share in an enviroment of shrinking ASP's and margins. ABI Research believes that ZTE's brand strength in its home market of China, will go a long way to keeping ZTE at the top of the list of global handset OEMs. The effects of the recent U.S. reports of ZTE and Huawei being a security threat have yet to manifest, but ABI Research believes this will have more political implications than business implications. |
| LG | 14.4 million | LG Shipments increased 10 percent sequentially and the company reagained its profitable status once again. LG will continue its strategy of focusing on LTE smartphones going forward, particularly as this strategy is begining to deliver a profitable quarter here and there. ABI Research believes that winning in this space will be difficult for LG in markets outside of South Korea as Samsung continues to take over every market it touches. |
| Huawei | 12.1 million | Historically considered a low-cost Chinese handset OEM, Huawei shares the international stage with ZTE and TCL/Alcatel, as a rising star from China. Despite being named a potential security threat in the U.S., the "double secret probation" status did not keep Huawei from growing its shipments in Q3. |
| TCL (Alcatel) | 10.5 million | TCL was able to show a 11.8 percent year-over-year growth in a quarter where most OEMs were citing competitive and macro economic excuses for their limited growth. Furhtermore TCL delivered 2 million smartphone shipments in Q3 which represents a 1,200+ percent growth year-over-year. TCL has also been able to grow its feature phone shipments and is actively gaining in the Chinese market. ABI Research believes that TCL is yet another Chinese dragon with the teeth to win at home and abroad, and will soon pass Huawei in terms of handset shipments. |
| Sony Mobile | 8.8 million | And just like that Sony is crawling its way back up the list of top ten OEMs. While Sony did drop out of the top ten last quarter, ABI Research expects that Sony can hold its own in the top ten, although it will likely come from a drop in shipments of its competition more than Sony's expected growth. Much like the Motorola acquisition, Sony has yet to put it's stamp on the devices that are currently in the market, but if it is done properly, Sony can offer Sony Mobile a treasure trove of technology, ecosystem and content support. |
| Blackberry (RIM) | 7.4 million | Q3 was a another holding pattern quarter for RIM and its position has risen to No. 9 on the list. On the bright side, RIM did out perform Nokia, Motorola and HTC in terms of smartphone shipments. ABI Research believes that BlackBerry 10 could be a competitive platform, but may arrive too late for RIM to remain in the top ten list. ABI Research believes that finding a company to buy or license BB10 will be very difficult considering that the competitors that need a new OS still can't afford one, and those that can afford one, don't need it. |
| Motorola | 7.3 million | With the acquisition complete and Motorola showing on the financial statements of Google, there is still a lot of speculation as to how Google will manage its $12 billion dollar baby. With the latest portfolio of 3 device types and one extra device featuring an Intel based application processor, it appears that Google wants its Motorola phones to have great battery life, great screens, and minimal marketing. |
| HTC | 7.1 million | With shipments continuing to drop, HTC may not be on the top 11 or even the top 12 in Q4. HTC has offered guidance that sales in Q4 will be even lower than Q3. Considering that Q4 is a very important quarter, HTC's inability to grow shipments during the holiday season is very troubling indeed. |
Market share of different mobile phone manufactures
| Samsung | 25.9% |
|---|---|
| Nokia | 21.0% |
| Apple | 6.8% |
| ZTE | 4.4% |
| LG | 3.6% |
| Huawei | 3.1% |
| TCL (Alcatel) | 2.7% |
| Sony Mobile | 2.2% |
| Blackberry (RIM) | 1.9% |
| Motorola | 1.8% |
| HTC | 1.8% |
| Other | 24.8% |
Voice Over LTE – VoLTE is Battery Killer
Voice Over LTE – VoLTE is the technology which will drive the future of voice call over next generation mobile networks and it will replace legacy circuit switched call technology. But recent studies made by Metrico Wireless give some scary results for mass implementation of VoLTE. The worst part is that VoLTE calls consumes more than twice battery power than traditional CS calls.
Every year smartphone battery is getting bigger and bigger. Some of the latest smartphones have the most powerful battery compared to last generation smartphones and it’s increasing at a rate of 14% per year. But still these larger batteries are not enough. The average device now has a dual-core processor, as many as five radios, a high-resolution display, one or more HD cameras, and multi-tasking apps, providing sophisticated new functions for subscribers—while increasing battery drain.
Metrico Wireless conducted studies in two different US cities comparing power consumption due to VoLTE on LTE network and they compared the results with same carrier’s CDMA network. Though Metrico Wireless did not mention the name of the operator, it is easy to guess as there is only one operator supports VoLTE in US.
MetroPCS is the only U.S. operator with a live VoLTE service and a commercially available handset. The 1540 milliamp hour (mAh)-battery on Metro’s sole VoLTE handset, the LG Connect 4G, also lines up with the battery capacity of the device Spirent tested.
The test was conducted for 10 minutes and average power consumption od 10 minute CS call over CDMA was 680 milliwatts (mW) and in the same time 10 minutes VoLTE call over LTE network consumed 1358 mW. Spirent estimated that on a full charge, its test smartphone could support 502.6 minutes of talk time using CDMA only, but the same charge would only deliver 251.8 minutes of talk time using VoIP on the 4G network. And that’s with all other data communications turned off.
If this proves to be typical for VoLTE handsets, it will be a big problem. The battery life of the first generation of LTE smartphones was atrocious, and handset vendors have tried to address the problem by slapping fat 3000+ mAh power cells onto their phones. Some carriers are already reluctant to embrace VoLTE since they can still squeeze plenty of life out of their 2G and 3G voice services. If VoLTE proves to be a battery killer, they will be even less inclined to move mobile voice into the IP age.
There are some good news about VoLTE though. Metrico Wireless found that for Multi-RAB scenarios when both Data and VoLTE are active at the same time, LTE performed better than CDMA but with a small margin.
The conclusion is that a lot need to be improved in VoLTE in terms of power consumption.
Verizon LTE Map – 4G Coverage
Verizon lte coverage map suggests that Verizon is the largest LTE network in USA with 4G coverage in most part of United States. Providing LTE over 440 cities Verizon LTE network provide more LTE coverage then all other network combined. 80% of American population can access to Verizon’s 4G LTE network.
Verizon 4G LTE Coverage Map
Here are some facts about Verizon 4G LTE Network
The performance and capabilities of 4G LTE will be unmatched in the marketplace, allowing customers to do things never before possible in a wireless environment. Consider some of the advantages that Verizon Wireless’ implementation of 4G LTE will provide:
HIGHER DATA RATES:
With Verizon Wireless’ 10 + 10 MHz implementation, LTE will be supporting average data rates per user of 5-12 Mbps in the forward link, and 2-5 Mbps in the reverse link. Both maximum and average LTE data rates are significantly higher in the reverse and forward links than those supported by existing 3G networks. LTE will enable video application on the downlink as well as uplink – including, but not limited to video-sharing, surveillance, conferencing and streaming in higher definition than is possible with existing 3G technology today.
BETTER MULTIPATH, MOBILITY AND POWER PERFORMANCE:
The advanced radio characteristics of LTE address several issues that have traditionally crippled cellular wireless, including multipath and multiuser interference. LTE’s use of Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) in the downlink transmission effectively eliminates intra-cell multiuser interference and minimizes inter-cell multiuser interference thereby maximizing performance. Similarly, the single carrier frequency-division multiple access (SC-FDMA) uplink transmission allows for user equipment to transmit low power signals without the need for expensive power amplifiers. Improvement in battery power consumption in end-user devices (UEs) is a side-benefit of the coverage and multipath/power performance advantages offered by LTE.
LATENCY:
The user plane latency achieved in LTE is approximately one-fourth the corresponding latency in existing 3G technologies, providing a direct service advantage for highly immersive and interactive application environments, such as multiplayer gaming and rich multimedia communications.
SIMULTANEOUS USER SUPPORT:
LTE provides the ability to perform two-dimensional resource scheduling (in time and frequency), allowing support of multiple users in a time slot, resulting in a much better always-on experience while enabling the proliferation of embedded wireless applications/systems. In contrast, existing 3G technology performs one-dimensional scheduling, which limits service to one user for each timeslot.
SECURITY:
LTE provides enhanced security through the implementation of Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) and the associated robust and non-invasive key storage and symmetric key authentication using 128-bit private keys. LTE additionally incorporates strong mutual authentication, user identity confidentiality, integrity protection of all signaling messages between UE and Mobility Management Entity (MME) and optional multi-level bearer data encryption.
SIMPLIFIED WORLDWIDE ROAMING:
Verizon Wireless’ chosen migration path to LTE, the widely adopted next-generation 3GPP standard, will provide the greatest opportunities for seamless international roaming.
MASS DEPLOYMENT:
LTE’s inherent support for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPV6) addressing and International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)-based identifiers makes mass deployments of machine-to-machine applications over LTE possible.
5G Technology – Next Generation Wireless Access Technology
What is 5G technology? Does it really exists? What we are going to expect from 5G Mobile Technology?
At the moment when 4G LTE deployment going on on full swing around the world, the search of next generation mobile technology is already begun. 5G Cell Phone Technology which is still not a standard term in ITU or 3GPP is expected to arrive in year 2020, which will mark completion of 10 years of 4G LTE technology. Starting from 1st generation of mobile technology, a new mobile generation has appeared every 10th year. 1G system (NMT) was introduced in 1981, while 2G systems (GSM) started rolling out in 1992. Similarly 3G started in 2001 and 4G LTE systems in 2011, with active deployment continues in 2012.
The development of the 2G (GSM) and 3G (IMT-2000 and UMTS) standards took about 10 years from the official start of the R&D projects, and development of 4G systems started in 2001 or 2002.
The official 5G Technology R&D project started today (27th November 2012) in the form of METIS project (Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for the Twenty-twenty Information Society).
What is METIS Project?
METIS, Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for the Twenty-twenty (2020) Information Society, is a large EU co-funded research project starting in November 2012. The project objective is to respond to societal challenges for the year 2020 and beyond by laying the foundation for the next generation of the mobile and wireless communications system. METIS is a consortium of 29 partners spanning telecommunications manufacturers, network operators, the automotive industry and academia.
What METIS Project will do?
The project will have to respond to the increase in traffic volume, by increasing capacity and by improving efficiency in energy, cost and spectrum utilization.
- METIS project will lay the foundation for the future “5G” mobile and wireless communications system. This is the first step towards 5G Technology
- METIS will develop a system concept that delivers the necessary efficiency, versatility and scalability. The project will investigate key technology components supporting the system, and will also evaluate and demonstrate key functionality.
- The R&D team will provide a proof-of-concept by means of simulations and test-beds. In particular, METIS will demonstrate through hardware test-beds key technology components developed in the project.
METIS is co-funded by the European Commission and the project will receive from the EU nearly €16 million of its €27 million budget.
What is expected from 5G Technology?
Pervasive networks providing ubiquitous computing
Mobile users can simultaneously be connected to several mobile technologies at the same time and seamlessly move between them. These access technology may be 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G mobile networks or WLAN, WiFi or any other future access technologies. in 5G technology this concept may be developed further.
Group cooperative relay
Data rate is not the only way to measure efficiency of a mobile access technology, to provide higher data throughput throughout a cell area is biggest challenge. In current research, this issue is addressed by cellular repeaters and macro-diversity techniques, also known as group cooperative relay, as well as by beam division multiple access. In 5G mobile technology there should be some major improvements may happen in this area.
Dynamic Adhoc Wireless Networks
Identical to Mobile ad hoc network (MANET), Wireless mesh network (WMN) or wireless grids, combined with smart antennas, cooperative diversity and flexible modulation.
Vandermonde-subspace frequency division multiplexing
A modulation scheme to allow the co-existence of macro-cells and cognitive radio small-cells in a two-tiered LTE/4G network
Massive Dense Networks
Known as Massive Distributed MIMO providing green flexible small cells 5G Green Dense Small Cells.
1800 MHz: Most Popular LTE Band
Which LTE band is used in most deployments? What is the LTE band used by most operators?
There are many LTE networks deployed till now but 1800 MHz is the most popular band among operators. In fact over 37% of LTE networks are based on 1800 Mhz band. 113 LTE networks are deployed till now in 51 countries and the estimation is that 75 countries will have 209 LTE networks by end of 2013.
Out of 560 LTE devices announced till now 130 products supports 1800 Mhz band. Forty-two operators have commercially launched LTE1800 either as a single band system, or as part of a multi-band deployment, in 29 countries: Angola, Australia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mauritius, Namibia, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Korea, Tajikistan, UAE, and the UK.
- Coverage area approx. 2 times compared to deploying in 2.6 GHz band
- Possibility to re-use assets e.g. antenna cables of GSM1800 or WCDMA-HSPA2100
- Possibility to deploy multi-RAN with simultaneous LTE and GSM capabilities
- 1800 MHz band is widely available throughout Europe, APAC, MEA and parts of South America, and thus has the potential to be a core – and global – band for LTE deployments
- Operators often have sufficient bandwidth in 1800 MHz to secure the full benefits of LTE
- User device eco-system is building; a good choice of user devices available now
- Can be a transition strategy between HSPA and availability of new spectrum
Highest Throughput Using Existing Mobile Technologies
Data rate is the new backbone of new generation mobile technology. Most of the new development are performed around this. I discussed earlier how Qualcomm is trying to use the existing technologies and some new concepts to increase data rate thousand fold.
In general we need to make use of unused spectrum as well as implement policies like Authorized Shared Access. Apart from effective use of spectrum small cell technologies like Macro, Pico, Femto and relay-based cell structures need to be promoted. HetNet is another big area where there is scope of huge improvements.
I tried to collect all the webinar from Qualcomm’s “1000X Data Challenge”.