Mobile Phone Applications Hit by Fragmented Market

A new Yankee Group report, "Finding a Clear Path to Wireless Data Revenue with Downloadable Applications," finds that while critical pieces of the wireless data value chain continue to fall into place, the market remains immature and fragmented. But wireless applications and services delivery platforms for the consumer and enterprise markets have gained significant momentum and are a powerful catalyst for jump-starting the nascent wireless data industry.

"Two noteworthy platforms--Sun's J2ME and QUALCOMM's BREW--have emerged as the best options for distributing applications on the next generation of mid-tier handsets. Operators that have committed to delivering BREW and J2ME already cover about one third of global subscribers," says John Jackson, Yankee Group Wireless/Mobile Technologies analyst.

Wireless operators, handset OEMs, and developers are aligning themselves with J2ME or BREW--and in limited cases (e.g., KDDI, China Unicom), with both. In the GSM world, J2ME will emerge the winner. BREW will leverage its strength among CDMA network operators. But a number of factors will limit its market penetration, including broad global delays or indefinite postponements of 3G network migration, and operators' preference for a more open business model.

"Both BREW and J2ME offer excellent environments for advanced consumer and enterprise-oriented applications on resource-constrained devices," Jackson says. "Despite the fragmented nature of J2ME implementations and the limited deployment of BREW, implementations of both technologies will continue, with J2ME far outpacing BREW. Both technologies will continue to offer progressively robust environments for application execution."

Posted to the site on 26th March 2003