Red Bend increased its market share to 64% of FOTA clients shipped in mobile handsets during fourth quarter 2008. This number is more than three times its closest competitor. Red Bend also increased its market share to 54% of FOTA-enabled handsets in active use.
“Red Bend’s market share continues to increase as software updating becomes more important to the mobile user experience,” said Adam Leach, principal analyst with Ovum’s Mobile User Experience advisory. “Red Bend has gained traction with both operators and manufacturers, and its FOTA client is now used by four of the top five handset vendors, as well as with a number of vendors in Japan.”
The study examines data from more than 1,300 mobile handsets launched worldwide since 2003. This report is the sixth iteration of a series of quarterly studies focusing on three technologies based on standards from the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA): FOTA, OMA CP (client provisioning) and OMA DM (device management). These technologies are increasingly being adopted by global operators and handset manufacturers for remote configuration, defect fixing, diagnostics and software management of mobile handsets.
Ovum states year end 2008 shipments totalled 431 million FOTA-enabled handsets (representing 35% of global shipments), 743 million OMA CP-enabled handsets (representing 60% of global shipments) and 410 million OMA DM-enabled handsets (representing 33% of global shipments).