TMCnews Featured Article
May 14, 2010
Hi-Def Mobile Phones to Boom by 2015, Study Finds
By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor
Many reasons to look forward to 2015 - its the target year for the High Definition mobile phone market boom, according to ABI Research (News - Alert), which recently predicted that around 487 million mobile phone users will use HD-enabled handsets to make high-quality calls over upgraded networks in 2015.
This advancement could provoke VoIP providers to make a similar improvement in the standard of mobile VoIP phone calls - as the bandwidth offered over mobile broadband networks increases, according to ABI officials.
And friends, that would be a heck of an improvement over today. Although there is a high demand for HD television and radio sets, as the ABI research has found "the mobile phone HD market is virtually non-existent at present."
Principal analyst for ABI Research, Fritz Jordan, says the industry is expected to grow in 2013, before expanding significantly in 2014. ABI officials have pointed to cost as a major driver, with Jordan saying "implementing the new technology will not be an expensive task for newer 3G networks."
The upgrade to HD voice "is not especially expensive," Jordan says. "Newer 3G networks -- those deployed since about 2005-2006 -- can already use the new format and require only a software update and a changeover to HD handsets.'
ABI's research concludes that this will mean developing countries with recently-installed 3G networks in Africa and Middle East "will be HD voice ready before North America and Western Europe, who will have to change older infrastructure to accommodate the new format."
Relax, though, prices won't skyrocket. "Users of the new hardware will not be faced with huge bills, but customers may find prices are frozen for long periods," Jordan thinks: 'Price per minute won't go up for HD voice subscribers, but it may not erode as quickly as for subscribers to conventional services.'
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David's articles, please visit his columnist page . He also blogs for TMCnet here .
Edited by Stefania Viscusi
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