ITU Telecom World 2009 In Review 2009 Geneva 5-9 October BUS.4 : DEVICE DEVELOPMENTS Our interaction with advanced networks depends on the devices we use, from large video screens to netbooks and smartphones. Consumers face difficult choices for home and personal devices, not just choosing between brands, but in deciding between classes of device. Enterprise users want longer-lasting devices, with guarantees of service. Session statements This session highlighted some of the broad set of trends around devices. A key point is that devices don’t just include mobile phones, from a telecom networking point of view there are a wide range of PC-type devices, laptops, netbooks, but also consumer products found in the home, including devices such as large screen TVs, capable of consuming huge amounts of capacity for HD video. Future such devices could comprise entire video screen walls, In ad-dition, there are a host of new products like the e-readers, navigation devices, games devices, set-up boxes, coming onto the market. A few specific trends have emerged over the last couple of years. We are all aware of the noise around the smartphone market, whether it is the Apple iPhone, whether it is the Android devices with the Google powered operating system, and then there is the evolution of web-capable handsets and phones with decent browsers capable of giving a good internet experience, some people’s handsets e-mail through Blackberries, obviously as well for a certain proportion of the market. But also at the same time, we have requirements to get ever cheaper devices out for developing countries at ever lower price points. Some of the low-end phones, GSM handsets are now as cheap as 15 $. In the consumer space you have richer multimedia devices, and a real challenge is to pinpoint exactly what the business models need to be. That goes around the user voice devices. Clearly these are the things that will be directly in front of the customers. 90 Forum Summary Report