03 Mar 2010

'Further integration required' for smartphone uptake

The growth in popularity of smartphones may be pushing up user numbers, but further integration of technologies is required to make the devices must-have items for business, it has been claimed.

Rory O'Neill, senior director of business marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at RIM, said a "capacity crunch" in network availability could spell bad news for the smartphone sector, while integration of hardware and software will need to take place to make the items more workable.

He commented: "I think you're going to see an evolution of usage. We're going to see mobile applications more and more used to service end-customer requests. "

According to Gartner, worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totalled 1.211 billion units in 2009 - a 0.9 per cent decline from 2008.

However, in 2009, smartphone sales reached 172.4 million units, a 23.8 per cent increase from the previous 12 months.