Cloud phones will disrupt leading vendor positions by 2015, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics. Unlike most of today’s mobile phones, cloud phones will rely heavily on the Internet cloud to provide value-added applications and services to consumers.

In this report, Strategy Analytics takes a historical perspective on the challenges that OEMs have experienced in past technology migrations and examines how some vendors saw these migrations as roadblocks while others capitalized on perceived opportunities. Strategy Analytics then uses these perspectives to assess the challenges facing OEMs in the coming transition to LTE, identifies product roadblocks and opportunities for device vendors, and assesses the drivers surrounding these issues.

“Each network generation has given rise to disruptive new designs, functionalities or devices. As operators begin to deploy LTE networks in the coming years, cloud phones will emerge as the next disruptive technology by leveraging LTE’s low-cost, low-latency, high-bandwidth connections to deliver a broad suite of content, applications, and services that live in the Internet cloud. Today’s market leaders will need to carefully manage the LTE transition in order to turn this potential threat into an opportunity.” said Alex Spektor, analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Chris Ambrosio, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Two distinct strategies offer vendors the highest cloud phone potential.

• Vendors like Huawei and ZTE will battle Samsung and LG be mobile operators’ first-choice partners for developing handsets that optimize the mobile operators’ cloud services; or
• Vendors will seek to develop their own cloud-based services. For example, players like Dell and HP will leverage their scale and computer heritage to tie cloud phones to a multi-screen cloud service play.”

See this report, “LTE Migration: Threats & Opportunities for Handset Vendors,” for more details