By Kim Yoo-chul
How can one define the current mobile environment?
The LG Economic Research Institute (LGERI) has come up with a set of initials ― UNVEIL. As with any hurriedly-made acronyms, it also requires more than a little imagination to make a sense of it.
U stands for ubiquitous; N for natural; V for vanishing; E for ecology; I for integration, and L for leadership.
Regarding ubiquity, the private research center said that the recent Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecommunications industry’s biggest annual trade fair, highlighted the advancement in ubiquitous computing and near field communication technology and innovations in user interfaces of consumer electronics products.
The increasingly popular touch-screen tablet computers are also proving to be game-changers, LGERI said.
“Natural” and “Vanishing” mean smooth and seamless interfaces, blurring the boundaries between televisions, personal computers and handsets.
``Televisions, PCs and mobile phones are no longer separated as they are starting to overlap each other’s features. The race to inject wow factors into products is increasing,’’ said LGERI’s Yoo Mi-yeon.
The increasing convergence between hardware, software and services will also accelerate the competition to provide better operating systems for mobile devices and this will lead to a more complicated web of strategic alliances between companies, according to the LGERI report.
“Integration” is about the iPad, Galaxy Tab and other tablet computers that mix all mobile capabilities into one.
Apple sold more than 1.5 million iPads last year, and this has inspired rival companies Samsung Electronics, Motorola and LG Electronics to flood the market with similar devices.
Market researcher eMarketer predicts that around 43 million tablets will be sold worldwide this year, more than doubling last year’s numbers. iPads will dominate the market with nearly an 80 percent share.
“Ecology” means a changing mobile environment that demands the expansion of WiFi or WiBro which enable users to gain access to
a greater variety of services irrespective of their given location.
As for leadership, the think tank foresees solo efforts by a firm will not be a way of maintaining market share or increasing its dominance.
Some firms such as Hewlett-Packard and Research In Motion are insisting on going solo in mobile operating systems, but LGERI expressed doubts on the future of such independent moves, citing Nokia’s recent decision to invest beyond its own Symbian operating system.
Google, thanks to the ubiquity of its Android mobile platform, was a dominant presence at this year’s MWC in Barcelona.
``Platforms will expand and diversify to include finance, medical and transportation related fields as collaborative networks will be needed to meet the growing range in appetites of consumers,’’ said Yoo.
She went on to say that the wholesale applications community has just shown the emergence of a new eco-system based on what LGERI says are ``service assets’’ by telecommunications firms.