Google’s entry in the mobile phone hardware market with the acquisition of Motorola Mobility seems to be the outcome of the company’s desire to acquire the 17,000+ patents that Motorola holds and compete more effectively with Apple and other smartphone/OS vendors. The acquisition will however, not only have an impact on the handset market but possibly will also have a big impact on the mobile services market. In particular, this may help Google to accelerate the growth of the m-commerce market.
While mCommerce implementations are relatively new, successes such as Safaricom in Kenya, paybox in Austria, Compass Bank in the United States, mpass in Germany and others provide a solid set of lessons learned for mobile operators, enterprises and financial institutions.
Mobile games developer PopCap, recently acquired by Electronic Arts, has struck a global agreement with handset vendor Sony Ericsson to pre-load its games on Xperia devices.
PayPal owner eBay has added to its arsenal in the mobile payments space with the $240m acquisition of Zong, a transaction firm with strong ties to Facebook and expertise in carrier billing.
Wednesday’s European Commission announcement on proposed changes to mobile roaming tariffs will effectively end the EU mobile roaming market as it stands today. According to Informa senior analyst Paul Lambert, the Commission’s proposed requirement that operators open their networks to other providers has “consigned to history the bi-lateral approach to striking roaming wholesale agreements which has been in place since the advent of GSM.”
Less than a week after the European Commission enforced regulations requiring mobile operators to further cut roaming tariffs within the EU, Commissioner Neelie Kroes has said Brussels will now move to end what she termed “roaming rip-offs.” Speaking at a press conference at the Commission headquarters on Wednesday, Kroes announced a “fundamental new approach” that would increase competition in the market and lower prices for consumers.
Chinese e-Commerce behemoth Alibaba is reported to be building its own mobile operating system for launch in the third quarter of this year. The OS is likely to be cloud-based – the group has had a dedicated “Alibaba Cloud Computing” unit since 2009, which is now reported to be working on the project.
It’s not often that you find an industry as diverse as telecoms singing from the same hymn sheet on anything, but this year’s TM Forum Management World event in Dublin was positively harmonious. And the message was that less is more.
Social gaming giant Zynga has filed for its much-anticipated initial public offering in the US. While the company has yet to put a price tag on the shares, as part of the process of calculating its registration fees with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Zynga has estimated it will raise $1bn from the sale.
European mobile operators will once again be obliged to cut roaming tariffs in line with EU regulations that were first introduced in 2007. As of Friday, July 1, consumers opting for the EU-regulated “Eurotariff” will pay no more than 35c per minute for calls made and 11c per minute for calls received while roaming in the EU.
Taiwan’s Taipei City Government has accused Google of attempting “to hold Taiwan’s consumers hostage, in exchange for the privilege of refusing to follow Taiwanese law.” The accusation arises from a dispute between Google and Taiwanese regulators that has resulted in the suspension of all paid-for applications in the Android market in that country.
As voice becomes commoditised, carriers are looking for new services, not replacement ones, says Broadsoft CTO Scott Hoffpauir. And voice over LTE (VoLTE) will be the game-changer in a fragmenting market, allowing carriers to utilise an all-IP environment to roll out new and compelling services alongside voice.
Mobile operator Orange has expanded its mobile wallet offering to another market with a commercial offer targeting several thousand users in Poland.
China is Apple’s second largest market for apps, after America. App analysis firm Distimo’s latest report reveals that, while the Asian app market is booming, it’s not exactly a gold rush: free applications rule the roost, with paid-for offerings only driving about a third of the revenue they do in the US.
Shortly after the announcement that Ericsson is to acquire US firm Telcordia, Mike Hibberd spoke to Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg about the deal. Vestberg explained what it means for his organisation, as well as the 2,600 Telcordia employees that will join the Ericsson payroll when the deal goes through.
Business and operations support systems vendor Amdocs said Friday it has snapped up network optimisation firm Bridgewater Systems for around C$211m (€150m).
The UK’s three biggest operators on Thursday launched a standalone m-commerce joint venture designed to provide a single contact for advertisers, marketing partners, retailers and banks to create m-commerce products and services. Cashing in on the m-wallet phenomenon, the will target companies and organisations that provide anything from credit, debit and loyalty cards to membership cards and transport tickets, allowing them to create secure mobile versions of their products.
European mobile subscribers rank improved network quality as the service for which they would be happiest to pay a premium and view more widespread connectivity as the most important industry development over the next decade, according to new research from Amdocs.
Nick Ogden, CEO of Voice Commerce and Entrepreneur of the year 2010, talks about customer ownership, and the misconception by both carriers and banks that they both own the consumer.
US carrier Verizon is the latest to jump on the mobile payments bandwagon, announcing on Tuesday a partnership with mobile transaction firm Payfone to bring carrier billing to Verizon Wireless users.
Lean and MeanWith summer supposedly fast approaching, many look to trim some fat and get in shape for the sunny months. The Informer has never been a huge fan of gyms; in fact his favourite machine in the gym is the one that sells chocolate. Telefonica’s UK arm O2, is one business that is looking to get lean for the holidays, though, and this week it announced that it is to trim 3,500 UK employees.
Cross-border opportunities are there, but Telenor has work to do in BulgariaPan-European operater group Telenor is making another move into Eastern Europe, this time buying Bulgaria’s Globul. The move makes sense for several reasons, but success won’t come easy in a country with high mobile penetration and a sluggish economy.
Telecoms.com speaks with Ali Agan, who has risen through the ranks of TeliaSonera Group to become CEO of KCell in Kazakhstan. With a young population Agan is keen to deploy LTE and exploit nascent demand for data services.
Jonathan Bell, VP of Marketing at OpenCloud, discusses how policy and pricing are just two dimensions along which telecoms operators can differentiate their propositions. By adding a third dimension, the service behaviour itself, operators can define and bring true innovation to the market that surpasses the traditional approaches of the past, he says.
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Calls for consolidation in the European mobile market grow louder by the week and four-operator markets look increasingly challenged. Now, those mobile operators that have already built scale seem to be suggesting that there is no option but to expand yet further through diversification.