Smartphone manufacturers have caught the bug, exploring Innovative new technologies and touch screens as they attempt to secure their slice of the market against Apple’s iPhone, at least, that’s what the analysts think is going down.

ABI Research calls the wave of invention that’s breaking across the smartphone industry the ‘iPhone effect’. Essentially, Apple’s high-tech foray into the market is forcing existing incumbents to play catch-up to remain competitive.

The analysts predict smartphone shoppers will face an array of choices, with touchscreens, touchpads, movement sensors and tactile feedback appearing across these devices. It’s extremely likely Apple’s competitors will attempt to build more user friendly interfaces within their products. The research claims manufacturers to be working to optimise their operating systems to work more efficiently on low-spec processors.

Smartphones are predicted to account for 31 per cent of mobile phone sales by 2013, the research claims. That’s up from 10 per cent of the market last year.

The Apple device is also impacting mobile marketing, the researchers claim: “When the iPhone was announced over a year ago, many thought that the device and its support for the Safari browser meant that this might be the beginning of the end for mobile specific websites and marketing programs. After all, the iPhone had a PC level browser with full HTML support.”

They praise the iPhone for its intuitive user interface, big screen, touch-navigation, and more.