Latest Blogs
Apple TV merely dips its toe into the Internet TV waters
The re-launch of Apple TV prompted, beyond the usual hyperbole, some intriguing rumours. A re-brand to iTV, an Apple subscription service and an iPhone-style TV application store were among many things mooted, but what we ended up with was merely a smaller, less expensive version of the same box, with broadly the same content as was available on the first Apple TV. Read more »
Innovation and investment are key to encouraging greater adoption of telecommunications services in Africa
It was a case of Groundhog Day. Here we were gathered for another conference to hear about the “success story” that is the African telecommunications industry. The message is consistent: The growth in consumer use of mobile telephony has been rapid, there is potential for more, and increased competition has provided the backdrop for this growth. And yet, we still listened to the frequently repeated discussions about whether regulators should encourage tower sharing, the state of play of universal-service funds and complaints centered on heavy tax burdens on carriers. Read more »
Music Anywhere marks the start of a wave of media-locker services from mobile players
Last week, a mobile industry player, handset retailer Carphone Warehouse, broke new ground in the cloud-music-services sector with the launch of Music Anywhere. The service is a “digital locker,” in the sense that it is designed to let users store their music collection in a central place on the Internet, which can then be accessed by different devices. Read more »
With its latest M&A activity, Disney increases its digital lead over slower-moving rivals, says Andrew Ladbrook
In July 2010, Disney, one of the largest media companies in the world, was involved in two large M&A deals. On July 27 it acquired leading social-gaming publisher Playdom for US$563.2 million, a figure that could rise to over US$700 million with a US$200 million performance bonus built into the deal. The deal follows the purchase of mobile-phone-casual-game developer Tapulous in the same month. But the Playdom deal’s significance as a strategic realignment is enhanced further by Disney’s sale of movie studio Miramax for US$660 million just a few days later. Read more »
It’s time for greater reporting transparency in the mobile industry
I was reading an article this morning that talked about the need for greater consistency in global financial-reporting standards, and it had a particular slant on the need for transparency regarding companies’ sustainability performance. It wasn’t focused directly on the sector I cover, but it did get me thinking about how stale reporting standards in telecoms have become. Read more »
BlackBerry ban in the UAE would hit the estimated 750,000 users of the devices in the country
Schedule for implementation leaves time for RIM and the UAE authorities to reach agreement and avert a ban
The proposed ban on BlackBerry services in the UAE could prove to be disruptive and costly for the many users of the devices in the country, as well as for local telecom operators and BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM). BlackBerry devices and services are strikingly popular among both business and consumer users in the UAE, and Informa Telecoms & Media estimates that there are about 750,000 BlackBerrys in use in the country at present. Read more »
Mobile Advertising sees surge as brands experience high consumer engagement on mobile
In terms of generating substantial revenues for value-chain participants, 2010 still won’t be the year of mobile advertising. However, we are now seeing increasing examples of successful mobile advertising campaigns and market activity including in-house innovation, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions. Media and FMCG brands are also experiencing growing consumer engagement on mobile and together these developments are starting to provide the much needed momentum the mobile advertising industry needs. This will no doubt lead to accelerated growth of mobile advertising in 2011 and beyond. Read more »
Analysis of European telco priorities reveals surprising results
We recently conducted an exercise looking very closely at the major strategic initiatives that have been implemented by the European telco community. It was a fascinating exercise that revealed a perhaps surprising level of consensus amongst all major European telcos. Whilst the tactics in reaching the goals may vary, our analysis showed the long-term strategic priorities are shared and fall into four very clear and focused aims. Read more »
JIL’s slow progress doesn’t bode well for WAC
The Wholesale Applications Community is keeping up with the timeline it announced back in May and was registered as a limited company in the UK on July 1, as well as appointed a board of directors featuring an impressive array of top executives from leading carriers from different corners of the world. It has also fleshed out plans for its merger with JIL – a similar initiative launched in April 2008 by a select clique of operators; namely China Mobile, Softbank Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone. JIL will be fully subsumed into WAC by the end of September, Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer at the operator association the GSMA, told journalists and analysts during a webinar this week. Read more »
LTE looms on the horizon, but GSM still has a long shelf life, says Thomas Wehmeier
I recently chaired the keynote session at our flagship LTE World Summit in Amsterdam. The event was packed with a who’s who of the LTE sector – more than 600 attendees from all around the world and all parts of the LTE ecosystem. Perhaps not an obvious occasion upon which to switch discussion toward the useful life of 2G. But with Seizo Onoe of NTT DoCoMo confidently outlining the Japanese operator’s aggressive plans to switch off its 2G network within two years and many other operators wondering how long they’ll have to operate multiple costly radio access networks (GSM, UMTS, LTE), the discussion was entirely valid. Would other operators join DoCoMo in moving away from their 2G networks so early? We’re not yet convinced and believe the Japanese situation is a very market-specific issue based both on the choice of a proprietary and niche technology (PDC) for 2G and on an unusually high level of 3G coverage and user migration in that market. Read more »
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