3g Mobile Telcoms Marketing Study - Industry Overview

3G Mobile Telecoms Marketing Study

What is 3G? 3G - or 3rd generation - technology supports the broadband, packet-based transmission of text, multimedia data - such as audio, video and digitized voice - at a high data rate. It will greatly enhance the next generation of mobile communication services, providing always-on connectivity to phones and other wireless communications, regardless of time and place. 3G has been endorsed by major standards bodies and manufacturers. WCDMA is the leading 3G standard. It has been endorsed by all major OEMS and operators.

What does 3G mean for developers? 3G is another network pipe, so in most cases developers do not need to explicitly program for it any more than they program for a GSM or GPRS network. However, the enhanced bandwidth and the always-on nature of 3G removes some practical limitations on the types of services that developers can deliver.

What services will 3G enable? No single 3G application will dominate the market. High-speed content like video-on-demand, multimedia and always-on Internet access are just a few possibilities. Nokia believes Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) will be one of the first successful services on the market.

Is 3G too far out to make application development profitable? The 3G network roll-out is in process, but the applications that will work best over 3G already work on today's networks. MMS, OTA download of Java applications, and browsing applications are already in use today. As 3G bandwidth becomes more widely available, developers can enhance existing applications with richer graphics and other data-intensive services.

When will WCDMA 3G networks be available? Nokia is already rolling out its 3G network solutions. The first Nokia WCDMA and EDGE networks will be launched commercially during the second half of 2002.

Current Market Situation The current market share held by the 4 major producers of mobile communications in the 3rd quarter of 2002 was as follows: 1. Nokia ÐŽV 35.9% 2. Motorola- 14.4% 3. Samsung- 10.6% 4. Sony-Ericsson- 4.8% For the past 3 years, the mobile communications industry has taken a significant downturn. The value of the market has decreased in the region of billions of euro.

The downturn of the industry can be attributed to three main causes: 1. Investors have somewhat lost confidence in the hi-tech industries and hence now the trailing mobile communications industry 2. Market Saturation experienced by the mobile industry 3. The product life cycle of the 2G mobile phone has progressed to the decline stage, resulting in a significant drop in sales Until recently there has not been any major technical advancement in the mobile phone over the last 3 years. Due to poor technical specifications and inflated expectations (due to the promotional strategies undertaken), WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) enabled handsets and other internet based communications devices were commercial failures which was reflected in the poor unit sales figures for the period. With the prospect of the 3rd generation of mobile phones coming onto the market between 2003 & 2006, the industry has started to become more lucrative. Worldwide mobile phone sales in the 3rd quarter of 2002 totalled 104.3 million units (a 7.8% increase from the same time 1 yr prior. Information source: Dataquest Inc) Nokia expects the market to grow to between 440 million- 460 million units in 2003 overall. However business analysts generally think to be around 435 million in the 2003 financial year. Nokia believe that Europe is the major market where consumers are looking to upgrade their handset in 2003. Mobile phone subscribers will be looking to replace their old phones with the new breed of mobiles available at the moment with digital camera/ colour screen capabilities. Confirmation of this trend in the industry is by the sheer volume of people signing up for the new MMS (Multimedia Messaging Services), 20,000 for T-Mobile in Germany alone, and 30,000 in the UK for Vodafone, all in a 6 month period. The popularity of the SMS (Short Message Service) has been the main contributor to this new breed of messaging. When 3G is introduced it will have all the capability that these new phones have and more. However, by the time 3G is incorporated into the market place, MMS will be widely accepted and the cost of the service will have decreased.

Producers of mobile communications such as Nokia & Sony Ericcson, along with the network providers T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone & O2 are expecting that the introduction of the new MMS services will enable them to achieve the growth objectives & provide a new untapped resource of revenue from increased unit sales. Although this new MMS service will most definitely cause an upturn in a currently flagging market, it should not be relied on too heavily as a main source of revenue or selling point. Sending of MMS messages is still very expensive in comparison to SMS texting. Also, the handsets which have the capability to do so are still particularly expensive & may be out of reach (financially) to those who send most messages (88% of all messages are sent buy under 22 year olds and most of them in the teen market). The current market trend of SMS messaging should not be neglected as it currently accounts for 12% of the total revenue generated for network providers.

PEST Analysis Political and Legal Factors Political factors have increased in toughness for mobile phone operators as phones become more advanced. In particular the way in which billing information is handled in the future will be affected by new anti-terrorist legislation imposed by the government.

The 3G mobile phones are expected to obtain data pinpointing the whereabouts of the mobile phone user to within a couple of meters. It is proposed this information is retained in the future for longer periods than mobile operators have done so in the past in order to attempt to locate criminal movement.

The government have invested in independent research into health affects of mobile phones. The outcomes have been inconclusive, however scientists have stated the use of mobile phones does affect brain activity. This is not proof of damage, however the government are keen to have an answer and this could affect the use of future mobile phones.

The intervention of government noticing the escalating crimes focused on or around mobile phones has an impact on their development. The phones have to be less appealing to thieves by some form of internal security as phone thieves begin to target children equipped with a mobile phone by parents or guardians for safety reasons.

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