Mobile Market Overview

A new generation of devices, ranging from personal navigation units and smartphones to e-book readers and even Mobile Internet Devices (MID), all connected to the global wireless network, are once more set to reshape modern life.
Without embedded security, mobility would not be the same, failing to meet the level of trust and reliability required for mass adoption.
For many consumers, their mobile phone has become their primary device for consuming music, proving beyond doubt that music is mobile and mobile music is a killer application. Regardless of whether the business model is based on subscription or is subsidized by advertisements, some form of content protection or Digital Rights Management (DRM) system is required. Hardware-based embedded security solutions provide a robust, high-performance infrastructure, to ensure that content rights are respected without impacting the user experience. Music is only the beginning. Increasingly other forms of content, such as video and television, are being accessed via mobile devices, raising the bar for protection, management and security even further.  
Smartphones already comprise one quarter of the mobile phone market, with open operating systems such as Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian, MacOS and Linux who offer subscribers an unprecedented level of flexibility and functionality. Yet openness comes at a cost, primarily, at the cost of security, requiring policy enforcement for downloaded applications. Today’s smartphones are equipped with a Secure Execution Environment, ensuring that 3rd party applications present no risk to the functioning of the device or to its contents. As mobile devices become more popular, an unfortunate byproduct of their widespread use is illegal device cloning. With handset cloners becoming more sophisticated, device manufacturers’ key intellectual property is at risk.
The traditional software-only approach to security has not been effective in providing the level of protection that is needed in the age of mobile computing. Only the combination of a hardware-based solution with an overall system approach can overcome the challenges posed by this rapidly increasing industry, driving the development of new applications and opportunities. The world’s leading mobile operators and industry alliances, such as the Open Mobile Alliance and the Open Mobile Terminal Platform, are leading in the efforts in the definition and standardization of embedded security solutions for mobile devices.