Teenage dream devices

Currently 28.7 percent of teen cellphone users carry smartphones, and analysts expect that more than 50 percent will have one next year.

AT&T Inc. is releasing two phones this summer that will cater to teens - the HTC Status and the LG Thrill 4G. The Status allows users to instantly share information to Facebook with the click of a button, and the Thrill is a smartphone, featuring 3-D graphics (no glasses needed). Both will run Google Inc.’s Android operating system.

When Apple Inc.’s newest operating system, iOS 5, comes out this fall, it will come equipped with iMessage, a service that will go head-to-head with Research in Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry Messenger service, which teens love.

Matt Thornton, a senior analyst with Avian Securities, an information technology research firm in Boston, said the growing teen market is an important demographic for companies like Apple, Google, and RIM.

“Obviously, capturing teenagers when they move to their first smartphone is a push by these companies, and they want to lock them in,’’ Thornton said.

Once smartphone users find a platform that fits their needs, they are less likely to switch, he said. IPhone apps purchased through iTunes, for example, cannot be transferred to an Android device, and users who switch phones have no choice but to rebuild their application portfolio from scratch, Thornton said.

But satisfying fickle teens can be difficult. This young audience cares less about allegiances and more about the phone’s IQ.

A smartphone should act like a handheld computer, allowing users to surf the Web and download applications.

“For teenagers, it doesn’t matter what the brand is, but what really matters is what the phone does for them,’’ said Freddie Benjamin, research manager for mobileYouth, a research firm that studies youth marketing and behavior. “It is the key to their social life, it is an extension of them.’’

BlackBerry is a case in point. RIM, better known for being in hands of high-powered executives, dominated the teen smartphone market about a year ago with a 40 percent share.