2008 Predictions: Open, Smartphone, Mobile Advertising, WiMax

Open
- Open will be a key in 2008. Last year we have seen lots of open access strategy from carriers and manufacturers. I hope carrier loose the their too much tight grip on the control.
700MHz auction (whoever will win, it goes open access),
Google Android (open mobile platform),
iPhone SDK (now real smartphone),
Verizon's open access strategy,
AT&T already open (according to their announcement)

Smartphone
- 2008 will be the year of smartphone. 2007 is the year of the beginning of smartphone market. Actually smartphone has been started much earlier. But it did not take off. With successful iPhone launch and Google android, mobile business succeeded to draw the attentions. We can see huge amount of smartphone device in 2008. Touch screen or not is important. Everybody will want a smartphone instead just rudimentary mobile handset.
Apple iPhone in 3G
Google Android
Blackberry new device like iPhone
Samsung BlackJack3 (?)
LG touch screen phone (PRADA phone, KS20)
Dell's entering to smartphone market
HP
HTC
Lots of taiwanese windows mobile companies (ASUS, GIGABYTE, ...)

Mobile Advertising
- As the screen size is getting bigger and the processor power is getting better, there is a good oppotunity for mobile advertising. There have been many experiments about mobile advertising. In the next year we can see some fruits. Google and Microsoft are also battling in this field. Yahoo, too. Let's see who will win.
Microsoft
Google
Yahoo

WiMax
- This is the year Sprint promised to provide the WiMax to all around the US. Actually I am not sure if this will be a success or not. I am suspicious about the WiMax. Even though they look to create a big market, I think it would be a small niche market. There are lots of alternatives. HSDPA, EV-DO, and 4G.
Sprint
ClearWire
Samsung
Intel