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El futuro de la industria de los móviles

February 14, 2006 on 1:52 pm | En Predicciones |

La BBC analiza el futuro de la industria de móviles en Future shock awaits mobile firms, prediciendo una sorpresa para las operadoras.

El problema es que los clientes no se deshacen de sus viejos teléfonos y se pasan a tecnologías más novedosas como 3G. Pero el artículo señala que la culpa, según Mark Heath de Sound Partners, es de las propias operadoras que no quieren alterar el negocio tal y como lo tienen ahora: se cobra dinero por cada cosita que el cliente quiere hacer. La mejor forma de animar al cambio sería ofrecer una tarifa plana de datos, pero:

In fact, said Mr Heath, the early days of the net show that flat rate pricing systems, in which users pay a set fee every month to get at as much data as they want, are the best way to encourage customers to do more.

He said the central tension here was with the old-fashioned telephone world way of working in which users pay a lot for relatively little access as opposed to the internet way which involves low fees for lots of access.

Mr Heath said many operators fear that if they commit too much too soon to 3G they will see customers use huge amounts of data but pay little for it. In a very short period of time lucrative revenue streams would dry up.

There is also the fear that customers would use the mobile networks to get at all the services they use on the net from the likes of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and eBay.

“Operators are making very attractive returns on data but around the corner lies the danger that their networks will become bit pipes allowing any service but which means that their revenue is decimated,” said Mr Heath.

El problema es que ese tipo de usos de datos es para lo que vale algo como 3G. Si no, no tiene mayor sentido cambiarse.

La predicción:

One thing is clear. It is going to be good to be a mobile user over the next couple of years as the operators offer all kinds of deals on voice calls and messages to get people to trade up to 3G.

But if the operators get their strategies wrong, there is no doubt that they will be the ones paying.

También: Operators need to offer flat rate pricing quickly or else they could be out of the game soon. Va un poco más allá y argumenta que dispositivos móviles como la PSP o el iPod harán imposible que los operadores puedan cobrar mucho dinero por los sevicios 3G.