The great mobile phone conspiracy
By: Jørgen Sundgot, Wednesday, 25.09.02 08:18 GMT
Could mobile terminal manufactures have teamed up on a secret strategy of delaying the rollout of colour 2.5G mobile phones in Europe? Well, Strand Consulting thinks so.
Denmark-based Strand Consulting has a habit of bundling provocative statements when releasing its reports, and the company's latest is no exception. When releasing the consulting firm's report detailing the Korean mobile market, they also take the opportunity to ask directly whether mobile terminal manufacturers have conspired to delay the rollout of colour 2.5G mobile phones in Europe - and why.
Stating that one of the many issues holding back the rollout of 2.5G in Europe the past year has been the lack of new mobile phones from the terminal manufactures, Strand Consulting has observed that without the new mobile phones with larger colour screens, built-in GPRS and J2ME support, 2.5G has not really been going anywhere - and the mobile operators have been able to sit back and point their fingers at the terminal manufactures.
Strand Consulting goes on to say that technical problems, small shipping volumes and other delays do seem to be on the agenda, when new mobile phones are supposed to be launched in Europe and so far it has generally been accepted that it is only natural with new technology and is therefore to be expected.
Shedding further light on the situation, Strand Consulting found that after a 9-month analysis of the worlds most advanced mobile market in Korea, 30 million subscribers have had access to 2.5G colour mobile phones since mid-2000 and advanced high speed, colour and J2ME-enabled 2.5G mobile phones for the past year. Also, Strand Consulting said, it gets even better since sales volumes are high: In the past year, 9 million Korean mobile subscribers have bought new advanced 2.5G mobile phones, while 3 million of those phones had colour screens.
In general, during the last year or so in Europe, most mobile operators have had their 2.5G GPRS networks up and running. Although there has not been much consistency in GPRS pricing and very little content, Strand Consulting admits it has actually been working and available. What the company does wonder, however, is where GPRS mobile phones were, and not the least low-end mobile phones sporting colour screens and Java for the younger heavy-user segments.
Obvious reasons listed by Strand Consulting for the delay include manufacturers' wishes to extend the life span of 2G mobile phones, clear their stocks of 2G mobile phones and only sell 2.5G mobile phones with colour screens when operators are ready. The company said all of the above reasons would help terminal manufactures, who are experiencing difficult times, slowing markets and fierce competition.
With regards to the last reason, Strand Consulting found that Korean mobile operators have worked hard to provide ample new content for the new 2.5G mobile phones and marketed the 2.5G rollout through innovative new sub-brands with content, services and subscription offerings tailored to each targeted segment. Therefore the terminal manufactures knew that they would achieve high volume sales of new 2.5G mobile phones out in Korea - whereas, the European operators have as yet spent little effort on content, services and packaged subscription offerings.
The company also goes so far as to say that many European mobile operators are still not sure what sort of revenue sharing business models to offer content and service providers on the new 2.5G platforms, and that one could get the impression that the terminal manufactures release new generation CDMA 2.5G colour phones in Asia, while at the same time delaying GPRS 2.5G phones in Europe.
However, if this is the case and the terminal manufactures really are selling new technology by the millions in one part of the world and delaying it in another with no particular way to point the blame, the company sees no other reason than that different manufactures must have sat down in secret and agreed to adopt this strategy. In other words - a terminal manufacturer world conspiracy worthy of a Hollywood movie.
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