The Narrative

Blindspot: Bundling or unbundling service and transport

Posted on by charlie

Phil has generated some more discussion on this new development to old bad telco habits, here in Finland (link below).

Sigh. We always think unbundling service from transport is best for
the industry. They tried it in the US with fixed line phones and DSL.
They tried it in the US with long distance. They tried it in the US
with cable.* Yeah, there was a temporary burst of innovation and
value creation. But, look at those industries now. Same old monopolies
have returned or reformed. Same old lock-ins and anti-competitive behaviour.

Then, what is the solution? Are we the ones with the blind-spot here, not the service providers?

Link: Finland for Thought � Bundles vs. non-Bundles | Politics, current events, culture – In Finland & United States | An American’s blog in Finland.

Regarding the spirited Finnish mobile industry debate below – Jouni AKA MRKTNGman from Nokia’s S60 blogs did a little number crunching. He compared the prices of a bundled package vs. non-bundled package – The consumer will pay an extra 3,58€/month (for two years) to get an awesome Nokia 6630 for “free”. Not a bad deal for poorer people (students especially) who wants a fancy smartphone but can’t afford the 299€ to buy the device at the shops…

*And France is trying to do it to iTunes and Apple.

The Narrative

Finland for Thought on: Liberalization in the Finnish mobile phone market

Posted on by charlie

I had heard about this, but it only hit me last Friday when I happened to go into the shop to ask some questions.

Seems like my operator, Sonera, is going to charge customers something like 0.45 cents a call, on top of the per minute rate, unless they sign a 1-year contract. When I mentioned that it was news to me, that I know of the change, but not of the surcharge (which it is), and that I must have missed it.

Well, he told me that they just sent out the warning to customers – sure enough, a week before the change – and I found it waiting in my mail box.

I get the one year contract, since I have 4 subscriptions with them, have never really had a problem, and have no problem signing up for another year. The other gotcha that I saw once reading the contract is that it renews teh lock-in automatically.

My take on all this? It’s a step backwards for the mobile industry. Aren’t we all trying to get away from contracts and subsidies? I also think this quick switch by my operator will cause a tremendous consumer backlash. Or at least I hope so.

But, then if I rolled over so nicely and harmlessly, I expect most others to do as well. I stayed becuase I genuinely like my operator (I think they’re the best I know of). It sucks that their need to keep me happy has vanished in a simple lock-in contract.

Link: Finland for Thought � Liberalization in the Finnish mobile phone market | Politics, current events, culture – In Finland & United States | An American’s blog in Finland.

Currently in Finland, operators are not allowed to include free/discounted mobile phones with their subscriptions. So Finns are forced to purchase a seperate operator plan and a seperate phone. This will all soon change, thanks to a little liberalization in the mobile phone market…

The Narrative

ButtUgly on: My most hated mobile applications, pt I

Posted on by charlie

Janne has some funny comments on mobile travel guides. Gotta say, he’s right.

Link: ButtUgly: My most hated mobile applications, pt I

I’ve had a very bad day today, and I probably managed to piss off quite a lot of people. So I figured I might as well get this one (and the few next ones) off my chest as well.

Over the years, I’ve seen all sorts of wearable/ubiquitous/mobile applications, that just get me easily in the state of mild enragement. Let me list my top peeves in this blog, and be warned that there will be plenty’o’ranting. Not all of the following text is to be taken completely seriously.

This will be a series to which I’ll be posting daily until I run out of holy steam.

And part 2 of this series has already been released here. It’s about the proliferation of dedicated buttons. Seems like Christian Lindholm’s legacy is slowly fading here from what I can see by the phones coming out. Different times, different designs.

Maybe.

The Narrative

Thems lots of apples, I mean, phones

Posted on by charlie

And remember, 80% will be in emerging markets. Are you ready to capitalize on all those new subscribers who have no PC or fixed line phone, aspire to have access to Web services, and don’t speak English?

Link: Nokia – Nokia outlines industry dynamics and growth at AGM – Press Releases – Press – About Nokia.

Ollila also gave a revised estimate for mobile device market volume growth in 2006. "Due to strong subscriber growth, we have now updated our global mobile device market volume estimate for this year," said Ollila. "Nokia estimates that in the year 2006, the mobile device market volume will increase globally 15% or more from our estimate of 795 million units in 2005. Previously, we estimated that the global mobile device market volume would grow 10% or more this year from last year’s estimate."

Strategy

Nokia fires off some low-priced phones for China, pushing for the next 1 billion new users

Posted on by charlie

Nokia recently announced three new phones for China, with price ranges from 45-65 €. Not as inexpensive as some others I have seen, but definitely in a significant price range to sell in huge numbers.

Link: Nokia – Performance, quality and ease of use – the hallmarks of Nokia’s newest range of iconic affordable phones – Press Releases – Press – About Nokia.

The Nokia 1112, Nokia 2310 and Nokia 2610 expand Nokia’s portfolio of easy-to-use, reliable and affordable mobile phones. All three models are expected to begin shipping during the second quarter of 2006.

Nokia also had other related items yesterday. For example, they once more stated that their Nokia 1100 series phones have sold over 100 million worldwide. Yes, folks mostly want a phone to talk and SMS with.

Another interesting tid-bit is that Nokia is rolling out a network feature, called the Nokia Prepaid Tracker, that allows folks to see their pre-paid account balance right after a call, right from the phone. That gives folks better control of their calling costs. The press release says that "over 70% of all mobile phone users in new growth markets are prepaid customers". Wow.

Nokia will be licensing the Nokia Prepaid Tracker, obviously to get everyone to use something their phones already have. Very clever.

And finally, I’ve been watching as Nokia has been trying to lower the infrastructure costs per user via inexpensive to buy and run base stations and with inexpensive phones. Now they are rolling out what they call the Nokia Connect Market Expansion kit. This kit helps operators expand and operate their network services to low-spending customers without affecting the cost structure of the rest of their network. Interesting.

Yes, Nokia is aggressively trying to help operators grow in emerging markets.

And here’s one last quote:

Nokia estimates the number of mobile subscribers to grow to three
billion in 2008. As around 80 percent of this growth [emphasis, mine – CS] will come from new
growth markets, the importance of these markets will continue to
increase. Nokia expects that Asia-Pacific and China will account for 50
percent of the next billion subscribers.

There are other interesting stats peppered throughout the press releases.

I usually don’t cover stuff like this, but if you’ve been reading this site for any time, you know how I keep pointing out things related to mobile and emerging markets. 🙂

The Narrative

From InfoWorld: Europe to regulate mobile roaming rates

Posted on by charlie

It’s about time we get to the bottom of this apparently gouging practice of exorbitant roaming charges. I hope the rest of the world follows suit.

Link: Europe to regulate mobile roaming rates | InfoWorld | News | 2006-03-22 | By Peter Sayer, IDG News Service.

"The objective is to promote competition and to ensure that consumers are not punished for crossing a border," said Martin Selmayr, a spokesman for Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media.

Strategy

Russell Beattie Notebook – Handheld Stylesheets

Posted on by charlie

Great article showing a great example of using CSS to restyle a site for different browsers.

At the end, he has a call to action. This idea gets my vote and everyone who is a CSS-jockey should come up with, not only CSS for mobiles, but a CSS version of their own site as well.*

Link: Russell Beattie Notebook – Handheld Stylesheets.

In fact, this might be a fun project. First I’m going to send off a note to Dave to see if he’s interested in maybe doing a “mobile month” for the zen garden or something, where all the designs submitted take the basic html template and turn them into pages meant to work on mobile phones (with Opera mini being the primary focus). That would rule. If not, I just registered HandheldCSS.com and may do this myself… I’d love to see some good designers really push the limits in mobile design and show us what’s possible.

*Man, I’ve been waiting for mobile CSS templates from TypePad for some time (I had the brief opportunity to influence them, though). I just don’t know CSS enough (or have a decent free editor) to make my own (gotta try the Firefox plug-in).

The Narrative

Jason Fried wants: Less Phone: The Moto PEBL

Posted on by charlie

Less is more. Simplicity vs Complexity. A few things well, rather than everything mediocre.

We keep coming back to the fact that folks use their phones for only a few things (primarily: voice, sms, camera, alarm). Yet, the smartphone keeps getting more: more apps, more screen size, more icons, more buttons.

Jason has some nice comments as to why he ‘reverted’ to a Moto PEBL.

Link [via Russ]: Less Phone: The Moto PEBL – Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals).

I convinced myself I needed a smartphone when I really didn’t. What I really needed was Less Phone. A phone that made calls, picked up a strong signal, supported simple text messaging, and offered a dead simple calendar.

But, Russ really puts his finger on it by summarizing:

And that’s the thing we should be looking for in mobility – exactly
what Jason described: We need to create apps and services that we’ll
want to use once the shine wears off. We need to find those compelling
apps that make you pull it out of your pocket and use it every day [emphasis mine, CS].
We’re not there yet, but that’s good – that means there’s lots of
opportunity left. 🙂

Strategy/The Narrative

Russell Buckley on: Mobile Vs Computer

Posted on by charlie

Ah, that never-ending question: will the mobile replace the PC? I think Russell here has a nice way of thinking about this: when would you use the phone even if the PC were there.

Yes. That’s the way to think about it. Not either-or but which is best for what.

Link: Mobile Vs Computer at MobHappy.

I was thinking that an interesting test of how advanced mobile phone evolution has got would be to ask if there was anything you used your mobile for, when your computer was readily available.

Of course, I know that mobiles are generally used when you’re out and about and don’t have a computer with you. But if you were to put them head-to-head, what would happen?