GLG News by Handset Evaluators (EU)

- the investment of both Vodafone and Telefonica in Amobee is another indication there are great expectations of mobile advertising - control of a technical partner however might hurt market growth - Microsoft before invested in Amobee competitor Screentonic

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.

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...

Broadband, especially wireless, is seen as the holy grail - its great when its everywhere and prefereably free or low cost. At the same time everyone is so dependent on internet access that it is hard to imagine what the world would be like if it wasn't there? In reality something else would have/or...

- Vodafone, Telefonica and Orange will see increased competition in the Spanish mobile market - this time from a player with a good track record (Germany, Belgium) of working in markets with multiple MVNO's - voice and text messaging prices will drop in the Spanish market hurting margins

- by closing an exclusive deal with Apple for distributing the iPhone, T-Mobile is opening the door for future lower earnings - an Apple deal is a short-sighted focus on acquisition numbers, but by giving away data and voice revenues to a supplier, other handset suppliers will see opportunities to do...

- further consolidation in the European wireless market - little reason for customers to remain loyal - 3G is no competitive advantage anymore

Blyk, led by a former Nokia President, will start operations in the UK offering free mobile services to consumers. They will fund this with advertising revenues. Offering free services could be a threat to wireless operators revenues, but there are hurdles.

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...

The wireless data market in European has not shown any significant revenues streams in the prepaid data market. Europe is more prepaid and more data oriented than the US. Learning from the European experience, AT&T should not be too optimistic about revenues in this market.