Future of Smartphones: Why Vendors are in Trouble?

By Zia Askari | TelecomDrive.com in Singapore

At a time when the global Android smartphone market is expanding rapidly, consumers from various segments of societies are using these devices.

As an integral part of Taiwan Excellence participation at CommunicAsia 2017 - Tzi-Cker Chiueh, Vice President & General Director, Information and Communications research Laboratory, ITRI explains that Android users are getting too close to the Application ecosystems and hence Andriod smartphone vendors need to do more in order to develop deep engagement with their user communities and reap future benefits.

“Makers of most Android smartphones are in trouble now. They are making what I call “Dumb Devices”. Users of these smartphones care more about the Apps running on these devices – rather than the device itself. As a result, most of the profits go to the App developers rather than the smartphone makers themselves. And this is reminiscent of the same situation in the Internet space. Most of the profits in the Internet space are going to the OTT players – rather than the carriers or service providers themselves which are providing the pipes or the dumb pipes.” He explained.

In order to address current issues and make a future proof strategy for android smartphones, Tzi-Cker Chiueh says that smartphone vendors need to developing deeper level of bonding with their users.

“We have developed several technologies that enable these Android smartphone makers to make more money. We are working on a three pronged strategy for this. Firstly, there is technology that enables Android smartphone maker to know their users. Once they understand their users, in a better way – they can provide better service and they can also venture into the advertisement business. Secondly, we can provide smartphone vendors to combine and aggregate capabilities of existing Apps, to deliver higher level Apps – what we call Multi-App – this is an App that combines the capabilities of existing Apps and this will create new business opportunities for smartphone vendors. And the third capability is what we know as BYOD security problem – where users want to use same device for work as well as personal usage. We can address this with the help of virtualization technology, with the help of which a single device can be used for work and personal usage. We have demonstrated these technologies at our technology showcase at CommunicAsia 2017.” He explained.