Pat Hindle, MWJ Editor

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Global handset shipments will increase 29% from 1.7 B in 2012 to 2.2 B in 2016 according to ABI Research. The key driver of this growth will come from the smartphone segment, which is forecast to become larger than the ultra-low cost, low-cost, and feature phone segments combined by 2016.

IDC releases projections for smartphone shipments with strong growth in China, India and Brazil. Read their specific forecasts for these and other countries which were recently released by their Mobile Phone Tracker.

SATELLITE 2012 is the center of the satellite communications universe according to the show, and it definitely is the biggest event in this industry. Here is a short preview of some of the news and discussions leading up to the show this week.

Three siginificant handset PA technologies recently announced for Mobile World Congress 2012

Since there are still health concerns about the long-term exposure to cell phone radiation, most consumers try to avoid unnecessary exposure using headsets or other Bluetooth devices (at least when convenient).  Yet we also want a powerful cell phone with maximum signal strength for quality voice and data.  While there are lots of companies offering solutions to protect consumers from cell phone radiation, few have reliable measured data that prove their product works. Here is one that appears to work.

The number of global insurance telematics users will grow at a CAGR of 90% from 1.85 million in 2010 to 89 million in 2017 according to ABI Research.  Insurance telematics or usage based insurance (UBI) is not new as Progressive was trialing solutions back in 2002 but there is a renewed interest in this market which is migrating from pay as you drive (PAYD) to pay how you drive (PHYD) based on continuous driver behavior monitoring and analysis.

Now that Q4 2011 results are in, ABI Research is reporting that Apple finally topped the smartphone market and Andriod suffers its first decline in market share.

Swami editor, Pat Hindle, makes his annual predictions with 12 items for 2012. He also reviews how his 2011 predictions turned out. Read his 2012 predictions and comment or make your own on his blog.

Here are the top 10 most viewed articles this year on the Microwave Journal web site: The Current State of Technology and Future Trends in Wireless Communications and Applications Cognitive Radar: The Next Radar Wave? RFID: The Next Generation Auto-ID Technology A Compact, Omni-directional, Circularly Polarized Microstrip Antenna Making Thermal Resistance Measurements without Test Diodes or Thermal Stages An Analog Approach to Power Amplifier Predistortion Trends in Defence Electronics: Technological Convergence in Radar and EW Xinger®-III Doherty Combiner Offers Advantages Over a PCB Combiner Two-arm Archimedean Spiral Helical Antenna with Wraparound Absorber Modern RFID Readers Half of these articles...

This market insight report compares Q3 shelfshare trends in smartphone and non-smartphone markets across the world. The analysis was carried out using SpecTRAX, from Strategy Analytics which covers 13,000 handset models from 140 network operators in 31 countries. This month’s shelfshare report uses data from Q3 2011 to reveal: - Smartphones accounted for 49% of global shelfshare with non-smartphones accounting for 46% of operator shelfshare. - Smartphone presence in operator portfolios has doubled in three years and now the market is dominated by big brands. Mobile phone portfolios are being filled up with smartphones, tablets and USB dongles at...