According a consumer survey, more users of smart phones reported that these devices are essential to their business than the users of PDAs or laptops, reports In-Stat. The company claims that the market share of smart phones will expand tremendously in the next five years, however, manufacturers of appropriate devices have to improve their functionality first.

“Wireless manufacturers have more work to do before converged phones start taking market share from other devices instead of just complementing their sales. Users want a number of feature improvements including better keyboards, automatic synching with other devices, applications that have the same look and feel as on other devices, and expandable screens,” said Bill Hughes, In-Stat analyst.

Recent research by In-Stat found that currently smart phones represent about 10% of the wireless phone market and this will grow to 25% of the overall global market over the next five years. Nowadays, in many cases, users carry devices that have redundant applications, which is illogical behavior considering the desire to have fewer devices.

Even though users of smart phones find them very valuable for their business, it this does not mean that there will be automatic acceptance of smart phones and widespread replacement of PDAs and even laptops, as those devices still may offer more than smart phones. In-Stat believes that wireless phone manufacturers can offer consumers more options on a single platform with smart phones, which reduces costs across the board for users.