Chetan Sharma Consulting rang in the new year by unveiling the results of its 2011 Mobile Predictions Annual Survey, which picked the brains of 225 executives and insiders from leading mobile companies to see what we should be expecting this year.
In response to the question, “What will be the biggest stories of 2011?” Google and Android got the biggest response with about 55 percent, followed by 4G deployment and marketing battles, continued growth of mobile data around the world and Apple tablets and iPhone.
According to the latest data from Nielsen, 40.8 percent of smart phones purchased in the last six months were running Android OS, followed by 26.9 percent that were running Apple iOS and 19.2 percent that were running RIM BlackBerry OS.
Nevertheless, Apple still holds the lead in overall market share with 28.6 percent of the smart phone market in November, ahead of RIM with 26.1 percent and Android with 25.8 percent.
Fifty-three percent of respondents to the Chetan Sharma survey expect the Verizon iPhone to launch within the first three months of the year.
Google is expected to make the biggest mobile acquisition of 2011, followed by Microsoft, operators and Facebook.
When it comes to the “Apps vs. Mobile Web” debate, most of the surveyed experts expect either apps will continue to dominate, followed closely by those that expect the mobile Web will start to become more relevant. A minority of respondents expect that both will live in peace and harmony, and that both are one and the same.
When it comes to expectations for mobile advertising spending in 2011, about 40 percent expect growth of 100 percent, followed by about 38 percent who expect growth by 200 percent. About 17 percent of respondents expect growth of 300 percent, while nearly 5 percent expect growth will stay flat.
India and China are expected to be the biggest infrastructure market in 2011 when it comes to sales opportunity, according to the survey. Also, Microsoft is the leading candidate to be the mobile comeback story of 2011, followed by Nokia.
When it comes to the blossoming mobile payments/commerce space, the “financial guys” (e.g., Visa, MasterCard) are expected to have the strongest positioning, followed by operators, Google and PayPal.
Mobile payments is expected to be the breakthrough mobile category in 2011, according to nearly half of the respondents, followed by mobile commerce, mobile advertising and mobile coupons.
A third of the 225 respondents were CXOs, and 55 percent were from North America.
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