Microsoft’s Windows OS now has 8.4 per cent of the UK smartphone market, while demand for lower cost devices in Southern Italy is being exploited by Sony and LG. Macro economic conditions and increasing diversity in operators’ subsidy strategies are creating contrasts in device vendors’ performances market by market.
The Android platform continues to dominate the European handset market, according to the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Google’s mobile OS has increased its market share by 20.2 per cent over the past year and now hold two-thirds of the market share.
The Android smartphone OS has more than 65 per cent of the smartphone market across Europe’s big five countries, up from 42.7 per cent in July 2011, according to the latest data from Kantar WorldPanel ComTech. As the leading Android vendor, Korea’s Samsung has 45 per cent of the European smartphone market, Kantar said.
Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft has begun to bear fruit as sales of its devices running on the WP7 platform have outstripped Nokia’s Symbian handsets in Great Britain. The Lumia 800 handset accounted for 87 per cent of WP7 sales in the market, according to latest data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, while Germany remains the strongest market for WP7, with market share for the OS now up to 3.1 per cent.
Consumers are now prioritising mobile operating systems more than ever in their purchasing decisions, which is worrying news for handset manufacturers which have traditionally relied on strong customer loyalty, according to research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
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.