Comments on: The Real Mass Market: Mobile Data for All

By: Juanjo

Juanjo — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:33:44 +0000

Any of the speakers mentioned anything or included M2M data in the figures. I work in the enterprise market, in my opppinon it could be one of the growing applications in Europe during the for next 4 years.

Thank you very much

By: Sophie

Sophie — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:04:20 +0000

Hi Mac

A copy of the presentation is avavailable to download here: http://www.informatm.com/content/marlincontent/ITMG/ibctelecoms/matt/MCI/The%20Real%20Mass%20Market%20-%20Mobile%20Data%20for%20All.ppt

By: John McNeill

John McNeill — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:07:16 +0000

Good session and would like a copy of the slides please?

Mac

By: Michael Rodgers

Michael Rodgers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:56:58 +0000

A couple of points which I beleive are impact this and they apply accross the board
1 Inter carrier interoperability is still an issue even in developed markets meaning that recipient does not receive the message or receives a web link to retrieve message-bad experience

2 There is still a cost perception which leads people to use alternatives like forwarding images via email for free instead
3 Social network could be looked at as one catalyst to stimulate growth
4 That said people simply will never use mms on mass as a communications mechanism as there will only be select situations where use of MMS is appropriate

By: Michael Rodgers

Michael Rodgers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:49:16 +0000

I beleive it is as if you leave it out and focus on the middle class and I’m assuming high end users the operator is very much limiting their ROI. Yes you can probably get better ARPU from such users but theer are less of them. also they will consume more data in the network (e.g. if they are using smartphones) and so operators costs will increase. By adopting server side adaptation technology the reach of a mobile web service increases immensely to the mass market feature phone segment. Yes operator must sell the service at a lower cost in this case but with more users even paying a small amount per day or hour pass to access the web will quickly lead to an attractive revenue stream. Also feature phone users will consume less data per session and so the costs in supporting these subscribers is less.

By: Prakash

Prakash — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:29:24 +0000

Any thoughts around why MMS messaging is so low, and how it usage can be driven, in both established and emerging markets ?

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:26:17 +0000

Is the mobile internet really a mass market proposition for emerging markets?
Don’t you think a better strategy for operators would be to focus on the upper middle class and richer user segments in metropolitan areas first?

By: Michael Rodgers

Michael Rodgers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:10:16 +0000

Hi Anne
I guess for services where the operator already has a rev share agreement with the content and app providers that model could work as it would incentivize them to do more in promoting their services and also attract more new content providers into the mix.

Michael

By: Anne-Lise Katle

Anne-Lise Katle — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:56:42 +0000

Hi,
I had been hoping that you would mentioned that another way for operators to reduce cost is to give more responsibility to the content and application providers to take more responsibility for service marketing and development. That implies that they must have higher revenue share to cover their cost. The operator will be left with a smaller portion of the cake, but of a much bigger cake, and hence the result is higher revenue for all parties. Tear down the walls!

By: Michael Rodgers

Michael Rodgers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:19:14 +0000

Hi James,
Good question. As mentione dduring my section of the webinar it is very important to operators in the emerging markets area that total cost of ownership relating to service is a low as possible, which means upfront costs for deployment, harware and software and ongoing operational overheads, support etc. vendors need to be aware of this and package their solutions according for this target market-e.g. allow the operator to start off with a low capacity system to help reduce initial investment costs and grow as more subscribers start to use the service. Equally operators must incentivise their users to avail of the service and must be sensitive to their spend potential. making the price too high will marginalise uptake, making it too low will increase adoption but at no economic benefit to the operator. So there is a balance to be reached. One idea as mentioned in the webinar is to offer no commitment pay as you go time/volume based access to service which if offered at the right price , will attract in new users. Incentivise further by providing access to limited content for free ( could also be limited to a promotional perdiod). Subsidize with ads etc

Regards
michael