IDC report that the converged mobile device market is surging. It’s up 67.8% compared to the same quarter a year ago.

While it’s ambiguous in the press release as to what IDC classify as a ‘converged’ device, it’s clear that Nokia shipped 9.3 million Series60/Series80 phones in one quarter. Multiply this up by four for the year and you get a significant number of phones. As Nokia holds 43.2% of the market, it’s obvious that this is the area that (C++) mobile developers should be targeting. Conversely, Windows Mobile and UIQ based devices don’t even get a mention.

Coincidentally, I wasn’t at all interested in attending the Microsoft Mobile and Embedded DevCon this year. Four or five years ago, I would have been one of the first people to register. Today, almost all of my development is under Symbian. This reflects the change in the market for mobile developers, at least in the UK.

UIQ is a different matter altogether. Up to now, I would describe Sony Ericsson as having tinkered with UIQ with the P800/P910. Later this year, they will ship a range of Symbian 9.1 based UIQ 3.0 phones branded Cybershot and Walkman. This is much more serious. I think this will significantly change the shape of next year’s IDC converged device statistics.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 9th, 2006 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Symbian, Series 60, UIQ, Windows Mobile, Mobile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.