Mr. Ian Wood

GLG News by Mr. Ian Wood, Partner

GLG News is now G+ Insights

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The rise of Microsoft's view on Mobile Web at Vodafone.T

September 27, 2009

Analysis of:Vodafone updates internet portal services with Vodafone 360 | www.telecompaper.com

The launch of Vodafone360 is the latest indicator of Peter Knook's influence on Vodafone since his joining from Microsoft 18 months ago.  Vodafone Internet Services are now trying to present a consumer face for Vodafone that sees it capable of utilising investment in 3G and 3.5G Mobile Broadband.The interesting element is that this will be the first two handsets in Europe that use the LiMo standard.  One from Samsung and one from Huawei.

Has anyone bid yet?

July 7, 2009

Analysis of:Orange and even O2 may bid against Vodafone for T-Mobile UK | www.rethink-wireless.com

Whilst the UK has two more mobile networks than it needs the big three all know that they would be helping it's closest rivals in removing the two small players. If T-Mobile were to be sold to a rival the actions of the Regulator are not know at this time but some action is expected.  The best case is that the new owner would be expected to return the 3G license and spectrum the worse is that both 2 & 3G spectrum is handed over. Has T-Mobile put the business up for sale?  The present book value for the business is some €3B following the write down at the start of the year.  Since that time T-Mobile has seen a decline in revenues in the UK and a loss of business caused by the fact that they have been working without a CEO or CMO and so have been following the German strategy.  This has further lowered the value of the business.

The Hard Part is Payments

July 15, 2008

Analysis of:Mobile Payment Transactions Will Grow, Research Shows | www.billingworld.com

Whilst the US has seen an explosion in Mobile Banking it is yet to see the users trust the service for Payments. Payments needs to address not just the Banked but the Unbanked, in Africa Vodafone and MTN have  established services that allow micropayments to be made to those that have no Bank Accounts.  The ability to make person-to-person payments is something that sees the service grow. Qualcomms Firethorn service whilst signing a number of contracts is yet to launch.  This service uses a Java Applet rather than SMS and Browser based technology to allow users to access multiple banks rather than a single bank.  This thus should enable a better uptake of Payments rather than Banking Services. The Stakeholders in the Mobile Banking world are moving towards a mobile wallet that uses NFC based technology to allow users to "wave and pay".

Still a long way to go

July 4, 2008

Analysis of:European 3G subscriptions seen topping 100 million | www.reuters.com

The market is still fragmented. In the big five we still see a wide spread of take up as consumers are yet to be won over. The mobile networks are still to discover a range of products that make the investment pay off. This talks about terminals rather than handsets and so a slowing of sales of phones is offset by a boom in USB Mobile Broadband Devices.

Too Little to Late

June 25, 2008

Analysis of:Motorola Impresses With 5-Megapixel Camera Phone | www.informationweek.com

This is something that they should have launched 12 months ago.  Failing that then we should have seen it in February at GSM World. The design is dated and the technology is out of date. This new handset is not going to have Networks placing orders outside of the US.  At best this gets a C for effort.

Is Business a core segment to Nokia?

June 19, 2008

Analysis of: Nokia unveils new business phones | news.yahoo.com

With ever more of the business done by Nokia in the Emerging Markets just how important is a handset with such a rich feature set? The Blackberry like E71 whilst attractive suffers from a limited number of Enterprise Applications. How does these handsets fit into the OVI service?

Vodafone under the command of Colao can only be good news

June 18, 2008

Analysis of:Sarin Legacy Isn't All Aces | online.wsj.com

When Colao left McKinsey to help run Omnitel as the COO he showed that he was more that a "Strategy Man" working alongside Francesco Ciao he showed that he was someone vary capable at Operational matters.  With Cioa gone, he steppped up to the CEO role and integrated the Omnitel into Vodafone. On his return to Vodafone he has spent the last 18 months getting ready to succeed Sarin by Optimising the network. Now with an Italian at the head you can expect to see Emerging Markets take a back seat as he follows the startegy of the Spanish Subsiduary and stimulates the market.

What Qualcomm is doing is building a Services Business

June 16, 2008

Analysis of:Qualcomm Creates Mobile Internet Strategy To Go Head-To-Head With Internet Giants | www.washingtonpost.com

Looking at the services businesses of Qualcomm and what you see is the development of a number of verticals.  One of which is BREW; the others are Location, Advertising, Payments, Video.  These services are aimed at helping to create Federations for particular services.  Having created these Federations Qualcomm will be able to influence the strategy of Mobile Networks which will lift the spend on Handsets that run Qualcomm silicon.

Don't panic this is not the end of the world

November 1, 2007

Analysis of:Skype and 3 launch mobile phone | www.reuters.com

What you get with a Skypephone is a service that allows another form of IM as long as you have spent a minimum of £10 per month.  This is not VoIPoM this is something aimed at retaining customers and getting them to keep the phone on so that they can recieve calls.

Form or Function?

October 12, 2007

Analysis of:Motorola Back On Track | www.forbes.com

The V3 was something that was a victim to fortune. Motorola built a very sexy looking handset they just forgot to do something with the software.  So you got a large number of users who discover that this is not a Nokia or a Sony Ericsson and you need to read the instruction book. Life is too short for instruction books, and so people became unhappy that this was a phone that just made calls and sent texts.  As an internet device it is a nightmare. Not a great device for networks looking to raise ARPU with data services so limited lifespan. Motorola have been playing with just what OS to run on the handset.  You can get the Q which is using Microsoft as the engine for the Smartphone.  However the latest Smartphone sees them return to UIQ (Symbian) for the software and it does not have a QWERTY keypad and so once again data services will be limited. David Beckham as a Brand is outdated, just as LA Galaxy about bang for buck.

DRM before we had digital and the spector of regulation

August 1, 2007

Analysis of:Welcome to BBC iPlayer Beta | www.bbc.co.uk

The problem is one of market regulation in the UK, BBC has a track record of innovating before the competition because it has a public broadcast remit.  The Internet activities of the BBC have been cut back because Government and Competitors have complained that it has abused it position and stifled innovation. Having to work in the regulated market the BBC has had to launch the service slowly, hence the fact that at present they are using a form of windows media player to show MP4 content.  The vast majority o the archieve of the BBC does not have rights to broadcast on demand.  Old shows were made before DRM was an issue.  Newer shows are made by independents who did not give the BBC rights for anything other than broadcast.

Payment or Banking?

April 30, 2007

Analysis of:Mobile Payments Gain Energy | www.wirelessweek.com

What you are seeing in the US is something that we saw in Europe five years ago.  We are going to see a number of services that are extensions of banking services and then others that are payments based.

When you look at payments where we are currently seeing success is in the expansion of banking rather than a substitution of credit cards. The rules for Money Laundering make mass adoption of mobile payments very difficult to roll out the services.

Internationally the big area is in remittances, these services mean that Western Union is challenged and the size and frequency of payments increase.

Just who asked for TV on their phone?

April 11, 2007

Analysis of:How to accelerate the adoption of mobile TV | telephonyonline.com

Mobile TV is all hype with little interest from the user in the street at present.

Content makers are yet to commit to support the Mobile TV sector.

Equipment makers need first off to agree on a global standard.

Yahoo! needs to understand the Mobile market in Europe if its to move forward

April 9, 2007

Analysis of:Strategy Analytics reports Yahoo! Offers Best Mobile Web Experience | www.mobiletechnews.com

The Mobile Web is not about Web2.0 on your handset, if Yahoo! are to be successful they have to see that it is about more than just a smart UI.

Success will come from offering a service that makes them a destination site rather offer to manage Portal services fo the networks as they have done with the Fixed Networks.

Staffing and Politics are still an issue if Yahoo! are to be able to offer and execute a service that Mobile users will be happy with.

Triple Play = financial suiside says Forrester

March 29, 2007

Analysis of:Hard-To-Resist Triple Play Offers | www.forbes.com

Convergence

- is, when it boils down to it, something of a myth

- convergence is a term dreamt up by consultants

- it is lazy short hand for collection of trends

- customers have exactly zero interest in convergence as a concept

- it is therefore a distraction

- it is just one of a number of potential means by which companies can choose to address customers

- it may be right for some customers in some circumstances - but that doesn't make it into the magic bullet that many in the industry believe it to be

- divergence has had a far more impressive track record thus far, in terms of value creation (iTunes, iPod etc are divergent; digital TV's many standards are divergent; digital radio standards are divergent etc)

- convergence has become a dangerous obsession for many players

- FT, DT, BT etc all have a "Convergence Strategy"

- Triple and quad plays are the most common manifestations

- Forrester reckons that on average, a European triple play customer will represent a cumulative loss of €3000-€4000 by 2010

- Their latest work calls triple play "financial suicide"

- IPTV is certainly a weak, immature technology competing against very efficient, well established technologies and highly effective and slick media companies

- Today, there are only 285 million broadband connections ON THE PLANET

- Of them, only 20 million or so are capable of 2mbps or faster ... and this is the total addressable market for IPTV

- In many respects, convergence therefore is another disaster waiting to happen

- strategic herding and lack of imagination threatens the long term prospects of a number of players

Great yet another handset!

March 28, 2007

Analysis of:EarthLink targets cellphones with Wi-Fi phone initiative | www.rcrnews.com

Most users select their phone on the basis of feature set not cost.

Just why will Networks connect VoIP calls?

Bad news for Mobile Networks

May 2, 2006

Analysis of:Mobile operators face wi-fi challenge | technology.guardian.co.uk

Fixed Mobile Substition will take place via wireless hotspots on an Ad Hoc basis. Another demonstration of the failure of mobile data services. Slowing of the switch over to 3G and thus increase in the cost base.

Its the brand reather than the technology

May 2, 2006

Analysis of:Sources: Nokia to Unveil New Multimedia Phones Tues. | www.pcmag.com

For the last two years Nokia has lagged behind in the Industrial Design stakes. Thus it is the brand value it has created that has sustained it rather than the cool factor. If the current N and E serries phones do not start to reverse then trend then Nokia will lose its number one status.

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