Maybe a bit of hype in the title, but no surprises that the iphone hasn't had the expected level of sales in the UK.
Although O2 enjoyed a major spike in iPhone sales in the week before Christmas, this was after disappointing sales from the much-hyped 9 November launch.
Most stores are believed to have missed iPhone targets by some distance, with a typical-sized O2 store selling just one iPhone per week.
There are probably a broad number of reasons for this - some are connected to the downturn in spending, others to their competitors (eg the LG Viewty). Ultimately, data charges not withstanding, and PDA style phone has a limited market and the iphone will never be as ubiquitous as Apple would want it to be.
Showing posts with label O2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label O2. Show all posts
Monday, January 07, 2008
Friday, December 21, 2007
iphone data roaming problems
Stories abound about iphone users being charged excessively for data whilst they are travelling. A recent tale was of a US customer who took his iphone to Europe. Although he never made a call and checked his emails once or twice, he received a $3000 bill for his troubles as his phone was set to check his email every 10 minutes. At least with a Blackberry it only checks the headers rather than downloading the whole email.
Still interested in an iphone I called O2 in the UK:
'What are the datacharges if I take my phone abroad?' I asked.
'The roaming charges for calls and SMS are published on our site' the representative told me.
Me: 'But what about data?'
O2: 'It depends on which country you travel to' (really? I thought data roaming charges were standard apart from a few exceptions).
Me: ' I got to France a lot, how much is it to get my email there?'
After checking with her supervisor I was told: 'The charges are set by the local network, its up to them.'
Me: 'That's simply not true. You charge me and it's on my bill. Contractually you would have to advise me of the charges, or at least publish them on your website.'
I searched their website to see, whilst the operator put me on hold to talk to her supervisor again. Finally, using a google search I found a page, clicked the link and it was dead.
O2: 'We don't know how much it is to use an iphone in France.'
Me: 'Most people take their phone abraod, surely if I'm going to buy an iphone I'll need to know how much it costs to use it?'
The conversation ended shortly afterwards. They didn't offer to find out, and were completely unable to give me the costs of data. In short, much as I like the functionality of the phone (I am a Mac user) the restrictions from the networks means I will never buy one until they drop the roaming data charges.
Still interested in an iphone I called O2 in the UK:
'What are the datacharges if I take my phone abroad?' I asked.
'The roaming charges for calls and SMS are published on our site' the representative told me.
Me: 'But what about data?'
O2: 'It depends on which country you travel to' (really? I thought data roaming charges were standard apart from a few exceptions).
Me: ' I got to France a lot, how much is it to get my email there?'
After checking with her supervisor I was told: 'The charges are set by the local network, its up to them.'
Me: 'That's simply not true. You charge me and it's on my bill. Contractually you would have to advise me of the charges, or at least publish them on your website.'
I searched their website to see, whilst the operator put me on hold to talk to her supervisor again. Finally, using a google search I found a page, clicked the link and it was dead.
O2: 'We don't know how much it is to use an iphone in France.'
Me: 'Most people take their phone abraod, surely if I'm going to buy an iphone I'll need to know how much it costs to use it?'
The conversation ended shortly afterwards. They didn't offer to find out, and were completely unable to give me the costs of data. In short, much as I like the functionality of the phone (I am a Mac user) the restrictions from the networks means I will never buy one until they drop the roaming data charges.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Nearly 4 billion texts per month
November's figure of 3.8 billion text messages takes the annual total so far to a staggering 37 billion, according to figures released today by the Mobile Data Association (MDA).
Person-to-person texts sent across the UK GSM network operators last month show an incredible increase of 1 billion on the total sent during the same period in 2005. November’s total represents an average of 126 million text messages currently sent per day in the UK.
On 6th December 2005, the MDA forecast that text messaging figures would rise to deliver an annual total of 36.5 billion text messages for 2006. This estimate was revised in August 2006 to 40 billion which it is now clear it will slightly exceed.
On New Year’s Day in 2006 165 million SMS were sent,is the highest ever daily total yet recorded, a figure that is sure to be exceeded again this year.
Prevous years have been beset with message delays as the networks struggle to cope with the sudden demand. However, networks have increased their capacity to match the continued growth of SMS and hopefuly significant delays will be something in the past.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Mobile Data Charges
(dodgy dealings in the world of the mobile operator ... yet again)
When you connect to the internet from your computer, the charges are pretty simple. With broadband, for example, you pay a flat rate per month and there may or may not be limits on that data transfer. None the less the charges are pretty clear.
When it comes to mobile phones, the cost of transferring data is more confusing. Most people have an idea of what they pay for calls and texts, although the networks have added confusion to this by exempting certain types of calls or texts from bundles along with the excessive costs of roaming. However when it comes to data – emails and downloading files, the mobile networks have taken advantage of the lack of mobile users by adding in additional and often exorbitant charges for transferring data.
What is Mobile Data?
Mobile data is anything that is moved around using the internet connection on your phone. This includes emails, the internet or downloading ringtones, backgrounds or games. This facility on the phone can be very useful for delivering additional information for users, and if it weren’t for data charges it could be done very cheaply. For example providers or games and ringtones commonly use a method called Wap Push to send you the file. Wap push is simply a text message that, when opened, connects to the file which is stored on the internet.
What is the cost of Mobile Data?
The exact cost of data varies widely from network to network and from package to package. If you buy a data card then there will be a reasonable allowance for data (typically 30 meg) within the monthly tariff. Standard monthly phone tariffs will include a few megabytes of data free. Most pay as you go users will be charged for all the data they download.
These charges are start at £1 per megabyte up to £7 per megabyte. And if you use your phone to download data while roaming the cost can be u to £20 per megabyte.
Worse still, this information is not easy to come buy. Look on your mobile operator’s site and see if they will tell you? For pay as you go users they don’t even see the cost on their monthly bills.
Opportunities
The great thing about the newest generation of mobile phones is their ability to offer games, music and even video. Your phone could quite easily replace your mp3 player.
With powerful devices carried around all the time by almost everyone, there is a great opportunity both for people to create music, videos or games and quickly and easily distribute them.
The barrier, however is the amount that mobile users will pay their networks to download it. If a 3 minute song is 3 megabytes, for example, then a pay as you go user will pay £21 to download it.
What’s the solution?
In an ideal world, we’d be paying the same as an internet connection on our computers. In fact this could be a perfect way to sell 3g phones. The networks offer a fast data connection for unlimited downloads at the same price as your home broadband.
However back in the real world, that isn’t going to happen just yet.
One option is to deliver via MMS, multi media message service. This is also problematic for the cost of delivery (30p per message), compatibility and most significantly, the file size. This is limited by the phone and may be as small as 100kb.
Wap push has a number of advantages over MMS. For example, opening a link to a wap site can identify your phone’s operating system and deliver a compatible file. There is also no limit on the file type or size.
Fair Data
The solution that we are looking for is pre-buying data from the networks. What that means for the user is the cost of the data can be included in the price of the item. At the moment it is possible for content providers to pre-buy data at around 30p per megabyte. Still not cheap, but much less than the £1-7 that a user will be charged.
We will be including pre-paid data within our Mobile Publishing System, Immedia24. It makes the possibility of sending full track music or even videos a reality.
As pre-paid data becomes more common hopefully the price will begin to drop. We have called this Fair Data, as what you are getting is completely clear.
When you connect to the internet from your computer, the charges are pretty simple. With broadband, for example, you pay a flat rate per month and there may or may not be limits on that data transfer. None the less the charges are pretty clear.
When it comes to mobile phones, the cost of transferring data is more confusing. Most people have an idea of what they pay for calls and texts, although the networks have added confusion to this by exempting certain types of calls or texts from bundles along with the excessive costs of roaming. However when it comes to data – emails and downloading files, the mobile networks have taken advantage of the lack of mobile users by adding in additional and often exorbitant charges for transferring data.
What is Mobile Data?
Mobile data is anything that is moved around using the internet connection on your phone. This includes emails, the internet or downloading ringtones, backgrounds or games. This facility on the phone can be very useful for delivering additional information for users, and if it weren’t for data charges it could be done very cheaply. For example providers or games and ringtones commonly use a method called Wap Push to send you the file. Wap push is simply a text message that, when opened, connects to the file which is stored on the internet.
What is the cost of Mobile Data?
The exact cost of data varies widely from network to network and from package to package. If you buy a data card then there will be a reasonable allowance for data (typically 30 meg) within the monthly tariff. Standard monthly phone tariffs will include a few megabytes of data free. Most pay as you go users will be charged for all the data they download.
These charges are start at £1 per megabyte up to £7 per megabyte. And if you use your phone to download data while roaming the cost can be u to £20 per megabyte.
Worse still, this information is not easy to come buy. Look on your mobile operator’s site and see if they will tell you? For pay as you go users they don’t even see the cost on their monthly bills.
Opportunities
The great thing about the newest generation of mobile phones is their ability to offer games, music and even video. Your phone could quite easily replace your mp3 player.
With powerful devices carried around all the time by almost everyone, there is a great opportunity both for people to create music, videos or games and quickly and easily distribute them.
The barrier, however is the amount that mobile users will pay their networks to download it. If a 3 minute song is 3 megabytes, for example, then a pay as you go user will pay £21 to download it.
What’s the solution?
In an ideal world, we’d be paying the same as an internet connection on our computers. In fact this could be a perfect way to sell 3g phones. The networks offer a fast data connection for unlimited downloads at the same price as your home broadband.
However back in the real world, that isn’t going to happen just yet.
One option is to deliver via MMS, multi media message service. This is also problematic for the cost of delivery (30p per message), compatibility and most significantly, the file size. This is limited by the phone and may be as small as 100kb.
Wap push has a number of advantages over MMS. For example, opening a link to a wap site can identify your phone’s operating system and deliver a compatible file. There is also no limit on the file type or size.
Fair Data
The solution that we are looking for is pre-buying data from the networks. What that means for the user is the cost of the data can be included in the price of the item. At the moment it is possible for content providers to pre-buy data at around 30p per megabyte. Still not cheap, but much less than the £1-7 that a user will be charged.
We will be including pre-paid data within our Mobile Publishing System, Immedia24. It makes the possibility of sending full track music or even videos a reality.
As pre-paid data becomes more common hopefully the price will begin to drop. We have called this Fair Data, as what you are getting is completely clear.
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