{"id":4831,"date":"2012-02-10T22:03:21","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T22:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=4831"},"modified":"2012-11-14T16:56:09","modified_gmt":"2012-11-14T14:56:09","slug":"sa-smartphone-trends-for-2012-cellular-ceos-respond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/4831\/sa-smartphone-trends-for-2012-cellular-ceos-respond\/","title":{"rendered":"SA smartphone trends for 2012: Cellular CEOs respond"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smartphones are all the rage with Apple<\/a>\u2019s iPhone, Android<\/a> and BlackBerry<\/a> battling it out for market share.<\/p>\n

The popularity of smartphones is clearly visible in Vodacom<\/a>\u2019s latest figures which showed that the company added almost 900 000 smartphones between April and September 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now have 4.1 million smartphones in South Africa, so these are big drivers behind the data story, and this will just continue and it will accelerate,\u201d said Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys <\/a>in November last year.<\/p>\n

MyBroadband BusinessTech caught up with two of South Africa\u2019s most respected cellular leaders to get their views on what they think the biggest trends will be in the South African smartphone market in 2012.<\/p>\n

MTN SA<\/a> CEO Karel Pienaar<\/a><\/strong> says that they don’t only consider the smartphone market, but the whole spectrum of smart devices which includes tablets and \u201cin between\u201d such as the Galaxy note.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe utility of smart devices – in terms of screen size and battery life – will continue to evolve to meet end-user requirements for rich data service consumption,\u201d says Pienaar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe barriers to adoption of smart devices are decreasing, and the introduction of low-cost smartphones will contribute to data traffic growth on networks. This provides the opportunity to deliver relevant consumer and business applications and services on a segmented level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pienaar says that from an operating system perspective, there will be a space for each one within segments.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndroid will be a key competitor in the consumer space, while Apple will occupy the niche consumer segments. Blackberry (RIM<\/a>) continues to dominate and has established a space for itself in the South African consumer and business markets,\u201d says Pienaar.<\/p>\n

\u201cKey, from an operating system perspective, is the ability to support the development and delivery of customer relevant applications in a manner that provides a superb customer experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

As networks evolve and ubiquitous access to high speed broadband is improved, smart devices will evolve to support \u201cpersonal cloud\u201d services, says Pienaar. \u201cThese smart devices require a strong, capable network for seamless experience – hence our continued investment in our network.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cell C<\/a>\u2019s new CEO Alan Knott-Craig<\/a><\/strong> explains that smartphones are becoming increasingly affordable, making it possible for a larger part of the population to become data and application savvy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmartphones are to vanilla cellphones what cellphones were to fixed line phones ten years ago. They are simply the new cellphone, which will replace all other phones, until a smarter smartphone evolves,\u201d says Knott-Craig.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the demand for data-hungry apps and a greater involvement in social networks by all will simply add enormous pressure for lower prices and higher speeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new Cell C CEO however warns that the role of the regulator in the allocation of spectrum in this new wave will be crucial.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the regulator gets it right, the entire country will benefit. If the regulator gets it wrong, it all goes clunk!\u201d Knott-Craig concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alan Knott-Craig and Karel Pienaar reveal what they think this year holds for the local smartphone market<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[43,42,26,1124,28,87,27],"class_list":["post-4831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-alan-knott-craig","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-karel-pienaar","tag-mtn","tag-pieter-uys","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4831"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5411,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831\/revisions\/5411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}