Market researches - 20/05/07

A few set of market information released this week:

• The WiFi Alliance has announced it will begin certifying wireless routers, networking cards, microchips and other related products in June.

• According to IDC, some 900k handheld devices were shipped in 1Q07, over 40% less than a year ago. Palm is the market leader, followed by HP, Mio and Dell.

• Canalys found that EU consumers are far more interested in knowing exactly where they are, than watching TV on a little screen. Even the prospect of free mobile TV, paid for by advertising, did not excite consumers, while GPS did (62%).

• According to iGR, the 3G mobile bandwidth usage will experience a 900% increase by 2011.

• According to a new report from EIU, the most innovative countries are Japan, Switzerland, the US, Sweden. China moved up five places to 54^th and Mexico six places to 39^th. You can download the report (pdf file, 44 pages) free of charge at www.eiu.com/Innovation

• According to Point Topic, the total number of retail VoIP subscriber numbers reached 40m in 2006, up from 19m in 2005. Japan, the US and France were the leading countries, accounting for 50% of the world market.

• F&S forecasts that the FTTx equipment market will be driven by bandwidth demand for IPTV and video services. (It is not necessary a scoop!!).

• According to Textronix, WiMAX would take 8%-10% share of global mobile market by 2015.