Apple has won the smartphone and tablet battle, but who will win the war?

This week IDC released their research on smartphone market share in Australia. I guess there is no real surprise that Apples iPhone is the highest selling smartphone. What did come as a surprise was that the iPhone is also the highest selling mobile phone in Australia (Nokia has finally been knocked off that perch after almost 20 years). iPhones currently represent 40% of the Australian mobile phone market. What was also a surprise was that 79% of all new mobile phones sold in Australia are smartphones.

This victory could be short lived as Google released figures last week that show that 500,000 Android devices are being activated every day around the world.

Or could it?

Nielsen released their figures this week for the USA which falls in line with Australia. Smartphones have now overtaken standard mobile phones in sales for the first time ever, (55% of all new phones purchased in the USA are smartphones) and Apple’s iPhone sales are still increasing, whilst Google’s Android smartphones sales have flattened.

And while these two titans battle it out, here’s what is happening with the rest of the market:

Microsoft are getting ready to launch their (new 7.5) Windows Mobile 7 OS code name Mango

Google are getting ready to launch Ice Cream, their new OS that will combine both smartphone and tablets systems into a single OS that will work on any sized device

RIM will be releasing Blackberry OS7 that they hope will revive their shrinking market share

HP has just released their TouchPad tablet to mixed reviews. It runs the Palm WebOS software that HP purchased over a year ago.

And let’s not forget the once mighty Nokia who have abandoned their Symbian and MeeGo OS platforms and are betting the farm on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7 platform

Then comes news that HTC have built the world’s first dedicated Facebook smartphone, which will be launching via AT&T in the USA and is rumoured to sell for $99.99. With over 500 million Facebook users globally (half of those access Facebook via a mobile phone), we could see a huge take up of this handset for a couple of reasons.

Asymco’s Horace Dediu who used data published by Deutsche Bank and the ITU, show that roughly 1.5 billion users around the world are post-paid mobile subscribers (this means they will normally obtain a mobile handset for $0 or heavily subsidised over a contract term of 24 months). There are roughly 3.7 billion pre-paid users (people who buy the handset outright with NO contract).

This means that almost 70% of the world’s population are pre-paid and the majority of these users live in 3^rd world countries where the greatest growth potential is.

Google’s android platform is in the best position to capitalise on this and this is what the new HTC Facebook smartphone runs on.

With so many other manufactures releasing smartphones on Google’s platform, especially the Asia Pacific companies like HTC, ZTE and Huawei, who know their market best, Google are in the best position to take a chunk of this market (which represents a 250% growth)

The other 30% pre-paid market is fast becoming a saturated market, meaning growth will start to slow down. Google, Nokia and even Rim to a certain extent have released low end phones to capture the low end market and would benefit here with the right strategy.

The biggest winners however will be those companies that allow this 3^rd world market to access apps and social media without having to own a PC or home internet connection. Many people in market don’t own these services; therefore platforms must support a pure mobile strategy. In other words, the ability to set up, connect, download and access services directly from the smartphone in a simple, easy and intuitive manner.

This is where facebook and Apple have the advantage, especially Apple with their soon to be released i-Cloud services. If the rumours are true, Apple are looking at releasing a cut down cheaper version of their iPhone and looking at what is happening in the market, it’s no wonder why.

All this is great for consumers as the fierce competition for world domination will continue to deliver improved features and functionality whilst driving down the price.

The challenge for businesses though means more handsets, operating systems and applications to support.

This, my friends, is why I am such a huge advocate for platform approaches to mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application development (MEAP)