Mobile network operators dialing in on data revenue
A research has revealed that mobile network operators, which once provided a simple phone and messaging service, are now evolving, catering to the consumers needs to offer a multi-platform technology experience via the mobile phone. This change, when the mobile network operators become providers of a rich mobile experience, requires investments and new strategic approaches to make business sustainable and competitive in front of new strong market entries and fresh patterns of consumption.
According to researchers, this increasingly constant demand for data has led large Western Europe mobile groups Deutsche Telekom – T-Mobile, France Telecom – Orange, Telefonica, and Vodafone Group to show signs of improvement with expected fourth quarter earnings in 2010.
The increasing trend in data demand is illustrated by the growing data revenue stream among these major mobile network operators. This data crave resulting from the penetration of the smart phone and other high-end devices, is leading these key Western Europe mobile groups to begin discussion of geographic expansion.
Researchers explain that with growing mobile penetration, mobile groups are facing an intensely price competitive and regulated environment. In order to generate a diversified income stream, expanding geographic operations from Europe, particularly to attractive emerging markets, becomes one of the market trends.
Both France Telecom – Orange and Vodafone Group have a large presence in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Deutsche Telekom Group covers a majority of European countries, while Telefonica has vast coverage in the Americas.
Researchers added that most mobile groups aim to develop and introduce new services to consumers and business customers.
Vodafone Group’s strategic focus in 2011 will be on Europe, Africa and India (where the demand for telecommunications services is growing rapidly), while developing new services and corporate segments. France Telecom – Orange will implement cloud computing services to reach a goal of generating 500 million Euros by 2015. They also hope to become the number one videoconferencing provider in France. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom Group will continue a nationwide installation of their 4G network. They also plan on introducing new B2B cloud services outside of Germany. Telefonica plans to capitalize on both the Strategic Alliance Agreement signed with China Unicom as well as their new partnership with Jasper Wireless.
Nokia leads in Pakistan
Nokia is considered the market leader in terms of mobile handsets being used to access the Internet in Pakistan.
According to a research, of an estimated 5 million mobile customers using GPRS/EDGE services in Pakistan, a sizeable 74% use phones based on the Finnish company’s Symbian operating system.
While Nokia is struggling to retain market share elsewhere in the world new statistics from a research company showed its Western European market share fell by six percentage points on-year to 33% in Q4 2010 its position has remained relatively solid in Pakistan; the vendor lost just two percentage points of share in the year to February 2011, despite growing competition from the likes of Apple.
Apple’s iOS is Symbian’s closest rival in Pakistan, but with a share of 8% in February it remains a long way behind. Sony Ericsson comes in third with 5% of the market.
Smartphone owners more likely to text while driving
Distracted driving is an issue for many smartphone owners in the US and Western Europe, as they report widespread use of texting while driving. A research report has shown that 38% of the US smartphone owners and 40% of smartphone owners in Western Europe compose text messages while driving on a daily basis; while 40% in US and 42% in Western Europe read at least one text message while driving each day.
These numbers are nearly double the rate for owners of basic and feature phones.
In the USA, mobile email is also a source of driver distraction, as 25% of smartphone owners read emails daily while driving and 40% admit to writing emails each day behind the wheel.
Research shows that tasks that take the driver’s eyes off the road for as little as 2 seconds increase crash risk. Legislation banning texting is not likely to eliminate the behavior, so consumers need safer alternatives in the vehicle.
Speech recognition, when designed optimally, has been shown to mitigate effects of driver distraction. Vehicles which provide email and SMS functionality by voice can make drivers safer on the roads.
Turkcell delays its debut in Western Europe
Turkcell’s Director General S¼reyya Ciliv has revealed that it has delayed its debut in Western Europe.
According to Ciliv, the firm would open for business in the country in April, despite originally targeting a launch during 1Q10 when it unveiled a five year deal to piggyback on Deutsche Telekom’s 3G networks in the country in October.
According to reports, the operator will target 3.5 million Turks living in Germany through its Turkcell Europe subsidiary. The division will head expansion into other European countries, with rollout determined by the number of Turkish ex-pats living in each market.
The operator has pledged to abolish roaming rates for ex-pats living in Germany, as it seeks to grab a 4% share of the market.
Alcatel-Lucent expects LTE in India by 2012
Alcatel-Lucent is predicting that commercial LTE services will be launched across India by 2012, a development that markets in Western Europe should see as a warning that they are losing ground in the mobile broadband race.
According to Rajeev Singh Molares, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s Asia-Pacific operations, the people that bought [BWA licences] paid enormous amounts of money for them, so they’re going to have to build something with it if they want to see a return.
According to reports, he expects LTE trials to take place in India in the next four to six months. There will be commercial services launching in Q4, or Q1 [next year].
India’s BWA (broadband wireless access) spectrum auction, conducted throughout May and June 2010 raised $8.23 billion, with Infotel Broadband Services winning a nationwide licence with a bid of $2.74 billion. The company was subsequently acquired by Reliance Industries for around $1.06 billion.
Other notable winners from the BWA auction included Aircel, which won licences in eight of India’s 22 telecom service areas; Bharti Airtel, in four areas; and U.S. chip maker Qualcomm, which also picked up licences in four areas.
Singh Molares hinted that developments around LTE in India, as well as China which has designs on exporting its homegrown TD-LTE standard ,could indicate that Western Europe is beginning to lag behind the rest of the world when it comes to the next-generation mobile broadband. Western Europe was the centre of wireless innovation during the 80s and 90s.
However, he pointed out that Silicon Valley has introduced new operating systems and tablet devices to the mobile market, while U.S. operators like Verizon and MetroPCS are busy rolling out LTE coverage.
Europe meanwhile has seen LTE launches across the Nordics, as well as Germany, Austria, Estonia, and Uzbekistan, but other major markets such as France, the U.K., Italy, Spain and Switzerland have yet to auction the necessary spectrum, and the Netherlands has sold LTE airwaves but has yet to see any commercial launches.
Global smartphone sales increased by 72% in 2010
New research report reveals that smartphone sales gained 72% last year, helping propel the worldwide mobile-phone market to 1.6 billion units.
According to reports, Research in Motion Ltd. and Apple Inc. became the fourth- and fifth-biggest mobile-phone companies, displacing Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB and the business now known as Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.
Handsets with Google Inc.’s Android software overtook Nokia’s sales of Symbian smartphones in the fourth quarter. Symbian remained the best-selling smartphone system overall as other manufacturers have it on their devices too. Nokia, which remained the biggest mobile-phone vendor, saw its market share drop to 28.9% from 36.4% in 2009.
The decline is not solely attributable to Nokia’s continuing deficiency in high-end devices but is in part the result of the growth of legitimate white-box sales. So-called white box manufacturers, based mainly in China, produce small runs of mobile phones from standard components without the benefit of a major brand. White-box phones have expanded from the black market and informal channels to regular phone retailers, where they now sell in significant numbers and are tracked by researchers. Sales by such vendors reached 360 million units last year.
About half of all the phones sold in Western Europe and North America in the fourth quarter were smartphones. Android sales increased more than nine folds during the year.
Vodafone selects Gerard Kleisterlee as new chairman
Gerard Kleisterlee, Philips’ Chief Executive is seen as the favorite to become the next Chairman of Vodafone.
If sources are to be believed, Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile phone group by revenue, has drawn up a list of three people to succeed John Bond and Kleisterlee is the British firm’s preferred candidate.
Sources revealed that Vodafone’s board will be asked shortly to approve Mr Kleisterlee’s appointment. He would initially join Vodafone as a non-executive director, and step up to the chairman’s role at the next annual meeting.
Vodafone has been looking for a new chairman with international experience, and like the UK group, Philips is focused on emerging as well as western markets.
Mr Kleisterlee, who joined Philips in 1974, is stepping down after 10 years as chief executive on March 31. He has transformed the Dutch company from a predominantly semiconductor business into a lighting, healthcare and consumer electronics group.
A key part of his strategy has been to offset slowing growth in Western Europe and North America with greater exposure to developing countries. He stated in 2009 that Philips could secure about half its revenue from emerging markets by 2015.
However, in 2008 Mr Kleisterlee abandoned profitability targets in his 2010 business plan because the economic downturn rendered then unattainable.
Mr Kleisterlee is Vice-Chairman of the European Round Table of Industrialists, and a non-executive director at Royal Dutch Shell. He is also on the boards of Daimler and Dell.
17 countries generate 80% of its mobile advertising traffic
Google has released detailed information about where its 2 billion daily mobile ad requests come from. While the AdMob network generates monthly ad requests from more than 190 countries, 17 countries account for more than 80% percent of total traffic in December 2010.
According to their data, most regions had 2-3 countries that accounted for more than half of total ad requests. The remainder of the requests across these regions was spread across a set of smaller, but generally more rapidly growing countries.
This data is based solely on ad requests in the AdMob network of mobile web sites and iPhone, Android, webOS, and Flash Lite applications.
Three countries – India (26%), South Korea (13%) and Japan (12%) – accounted for just more than half of ad requests from Asia in December 2010. Five countries in Asia – South Korea, Japan, China, Singapore and Thailand – had growth rates of more than 1000% in 2010.
Two countries – Mexico (31%) and Brazil (26%) – drove more than half the ad requests in Latin America in December 2010. Brazil’s growth in 2010 far outpaced that of any other country in the region at 1251%.
Three countries – the UK (33%), France (17%) and Germany (12%) drove more than 60% of ad requests from Western Europe in December 2010. The top 10 countries in Western Europe all experienced a greater than 400% growth rate in 2010.
Three countries – Nigeria (21%), South Africa (21%) and Egypt (12%) – accounted for more than half of the ad requests from Africa in December 2010. Sudan experienced the most explosive growth in Africa at 2466%, but started from a small base and only accounted for 6% of African requests in 2010.
Mobile broadband subscriptions to hit one billion mark in 2011
During the course of 2010, a significant milestone in terms of mobile broadband subscriptions was reached as their number surpassed the half-a-billion mark globally. Ericsson estimates that this number will double before 2011 ends. The greatest number of subscriptions, around 400 million, is expected to be concentrated in the Asia Pacific region, followed by North America and Western Europe with more than 200 million subscriptions each.
Mobile broadband adoption has accelerated with strong growth of smartphones, connected laptops and tablets, supported by the introduction of high-performance networks. Smartphones’ users are increasingly using applications and internet services on the go. Global mobile data traffic continues to grow rapidly, with Ericsson announcing in August 2010 that it had tripled in just one year.
Last year was also a good one for Long-Term Evolution (LTE). To date, Ericsson has signed commercial LTE (core and/or access) contracts with 11 operators worldwide. Almost half of a total of 16 networks Ericsson delivered have been commercially launched, and operators and consumers are starting to benefit from high-speed access enabled by LTE.
Users’ consumption of the internet and other media is changing as a result of the introduction of fast networks and the availability of various types of devices, including smartphones. According to TeliaSonera’s survey of its LTE users, about 23 percent of them now watch more online TV, and in excess of 46 percent surf the web more frequently when away from home.
Due to increased speed and reduced latency, LTE networks enable video streaming which also attracts new professional users, for example TV broadcasters and public safety organizations.
By 2015, Ericsson believes mobile broadband subscriptions will top 3.8 billion, with 95 percent driven by HSPA, CDMA and LTE networks.
Ericsson has been a supplier for the majority of HSPA Evolution networks operating at speeds of 21Mbps or higher.
