Mention smartphones and think of people checking Facebook or tweeting on their Apple iPhone, busy executives checking e-mail on their Blackberry, and users spending more time online on their mobile devices rather than the plain old computer. Right?

Not really. According to Canalys, Google Android smartphones have overtaken their more prominent rivals and Nokia’s Symbian-based smartphones in terms of shipments at the end of last year. Android devices had a 33 per cent share, Nokia-Symbian 30 per cent, Apple iPhone 16 per cent, RIM BlackBerry 14 and Microsoft Windows Phone 7 devices 3 per cent.

The recent announcement that Nokia will ditch its Symbian operating system and instead use Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 is set to shake up the market further. The rise of Android has been astounding, increasing from just 8.7 per cent in 2009 and eating away share from Nokia and RIM’s BlackBerry.

Finding statistics about worldwide use of smartphone is relatively easy, but what’s the situation in Malta? i-Tech tried to investigate the market share of the above-mentioned brands by inquiring with the three national mobile operators in Malta which, between them, sell all these brands. The experience was a little short of hitting a brick wall.

Asked to furnish percentages, not raw figures, of smartphones sold at the end of last year sorted out by brand, Vodafone Malta, Go Mobile and Melita Mobile preferred to give a general overview.

Yet i-Tech is still in a position to sketch a picture of the situation in Malta, and the picture tells us that smartphone use is rising in Malta, though, as reported by this newspaper in recent weeks, voice calls and SMS remain important mobile communication tools.

Alexandre Froment-Curtil, head of marketing at Vodafone Malta, revealed more than half of the operator’s sales are on smartphones, which include all the major international brands. Vodafone Malta is the official Apple mobile partner for the iPhone in Malta.

“The most sought after smartphone was naturally the iPhone 4. We had an extremely high demand for this model this Christmas. Another favourite is the HTC Wildfire and we consider it as a big success since Vodafone was the first one to introduce it in Malta. Another high flyer is the BlackBerry 8520 and was extremely sought after.”

Sandro Gauci, senior manager at Go responsible for residential sales, confirmed the rise in popularity of the Android smartphones in Malta, reflecting the worldwide trend.

“With regards to sales from our retail outlets, the iPhone was extremely popular in the last quarter of 2010 but we have seen mid-end Android phones gaining in popularity.  Indeed, we fully expect the Android to overtake other types of smartphone this year, boosted by the fact that various manufacturers have started to introduce Android systems in their mid-range phones too and of course, the Android store. We do not expect other phone companies to let Android win without a fight.”

Melita is a 3G only mobile provider and therefore subscribers need a 3G handset to connect to the network. Most 3G handsets can be referred to under the label of “smartphone” therefore all Melita customers are able to use the benefits of 3G technology at will, including mobile internet and e-mail access.

Without going into the merits of market share for different smartphone brands, a company spokesman told i-Tech: “While Melita notes an increase in demand for higher end smartphones, these still remain more common with specific groups such as younger audiences, business, pro-users and early adopters.”

While Malta continues to wait for the official launch of Apple’s iPad tablet locally, tablets from other manufacturers are slowly making their way into the Maltese market. If Malta follows international trends, tablets should be a big hit in Malta too.

Being an official Apple partner in Malta, Vodafone Malta is poised to be the official seller of the iPad too. However the company remains tight-lipped on the matter.

“We definitely see an opportunity and a market for the tablets sector in Malta. Unfortunately we are not in a position to comment on our relationship and the discussions we have with Apple,” commented Mr Froment-Curtil.

i-Tech can reveal that Apple representatives were in Malta some weeks ago to discuss with local mobile operators the possibility of launching the iPad and data packages that exploit the wireless capabilities of the tablet.

“Go, like all telecoms companies, is watching with great interest the phenomenon of tablets, which only reached Malta at the end of last year, too late to make an impact on 2010. Smartphones will remain a focus for us and we were the first to introduce a number of devices including Blackberry Torch and the Samsung Galaxy tab,” commented Mr Gauci.

“It is estimated that 81 million tablets will be shipped worldwide in 2015 and while there is considerable debate about whether they will use WiFi or cellular connectivity, we anticipate that the latter will emerge as the favourite because of the better geographical coverage and security.”

The three Maltese national mobile operators continue to invest tens of millions of euro in their networks to meet the increasing demands for internet access through mobile phones.

International reports indicate the demands for internet access over mobile networks is proving a strain for the mobile operators who just can’t cope with the demand.

According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2010 to 2015, worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 26-fold during this time period reaching an annual run rate of 75 exabytes (or 19 billion DVDs) by 2015. This would be 75 times the total internet traffic generated in the year 2000.

More than 5.6 billion personal devices will be connected to mobile networks, and there will also be 1.5 billion machine-to-machine nodes –nearly the equivalent of one mobile connection for every person in the world.

Cisco said two major global trends are driving these significant mobile data traffic increases: a continued surge in mobile-ready devices such as tablets and smartphones, and widespread mobile video content consumption.

The Cisco study predicts that by 2015, mobile video is forecast to represent 66 per cent of all mobile data traffic, increasing 35-fold from 2010, the highest growth rate of any mobile data application tracked in the Cisco forecast. Mobile traffic originating from tablet devices is expected to grow 205-fold from 2010 to 2015, the highest growth rate of any device category tracked.