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When it comes to seeing the big picture in the mobile space, Brightstar – distributor and all-round service provider to the wireless industry – is in a rather privileged position in terms of being able to predict what’s coming down the pipeline.

Multi-billion dollar Brightstar, headquartered in Miami, Florida does business in over 51 countries around the world, dealing with major operators and retailers alike, offering consultation and action on anything from supply chain all the way down to product placement.

RCR recently spent some time talking to Brightstar about what the next year might bring in terms of mobile and was told 2011 trends would include an acceleration in the marketplace, consolidation among devices and an uptick in demand for applications in emerging markets.

In terms of acceleration, Brightstar says the big focus will be on Tablets – with many manufacturers introducing tablets at various price points. Indeed, the firm says tablets may even replace TV’s as the big consumer electronics purchase of the year.

Operators, says Brightstar, are also looking for more customer activations, and are approving a plethora of new devices to use on their network, but often they aren’t willing to source them, and sell them at their own stores, leaving it up to the manufacturer to find places to sell their new devices.

As such, Brightstar predicts retailers will see an influx of devices they can consider carrying, but will have to weigh this against the high cost of devices and potential inventory issues of devices that don’t sell.

In terms of consolidation, Brightstar sees connected devices as having decidedly more of a vertical trend, with “total solutions” expected to be created for healthcare, education, retail, energy, etc.

Cloud computing too will see “convergence,” with players like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Oracle investing heavily into mobile efforts, says the firm.

Operators too are focusing on convergence with both Verizon and AT&T moving towards a common LTE network, meaning device manufacturers will be able to sell common devices across different operators. In this new landscape, says Brightstar, competing operators will need to differentiate on quality of service, content, applications, and value added services.

When it comes to emerging markets, Brightstar sees the acceleration in the shift of mobile devices continuing to unfold. Smartphone adoption will become mainstream in every market outside of the developing world, the firm believes and the development of mobile apps for emerging markets will increase dramatically as developers start to see the growth opportunities and acquire the know-how to develop apps for their local markets.

Finally, Brightstar says, as emerging market competition increases, operators there will look for ways to differentiate themselves and will attempt to do this through higher end devices and high value mobile services.