Asked by ComputerWire whether business users are likely to be attracted by 3G Live, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said business users had not been at the forefront of the company’s thinking for the launch, but said the offering could still appeal to some sections of the community.
For our business customers we have great products like our 3G Connect card and BlackBerry email. But my view is there are a number of applications here that could be quite appealing to business users. The notion of video calling, for instance. [Live] is a state of mind. It’s young and fun.
Vodafone chief marketing officer Peter Bamford said: Live is fundamentally a consumer offering. But I can envisage a situation where an estate agent [for instance] might use . However, he indicated that handset-oriented 3G services are in development. We are rapidly developing a whole portfolio of offerings for the business market that particularly focus on email.
Vodafone’s decision not to target business users with its first handset flush comes despite the success of its 3G Mobile Connect notebook PC card and connectivity. The service has already proved popular with business users according to Mr Sarin, with over 130,000 users signed up to the service since its commercial launch in April. This compares with only about 200,000 in total for the earlier GPRS version.
However, 3G Live’s range of high-performance handsets and Vodafone’s novel tariff structure could yet encourage business users to the service, despite some caveats on usage.
As revealed in the company’s September preview, these total 10 handsets from Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, NEC, and long-term Live-supporter Sharp are all represented, and local Vodafone networks decide for themselves which phones to offer.
A Vodafone spokesperson told ComputerWire that all the handsets offer xHTML-capable web browsers, while the Symbian-powered Nokia 6630, the only true smartphone in the group, can provide a full HTML experience. Most also offer megapixel-plus digital cameras.
However, while Vodafone is encouraging unrestricted internet use through its upgraded Live portal, users wishing to surf off-site or to use their handset as a modem via the Vodafone Mobile Connect dashboard software for PCs will incur an additional data-only charge. Vodafone was unable to give details of the cost of this tariff before ComputerWire went to press.
This limitation could deter power users who will already have paid a subscription of either GBP40 ($74) or GBP60 ($111) per month (in the UK) for a package of 500 or 1,000 voice minutes. Both tariffs include identical data packages, including 100 text messages, 50 minutes of video calling, and an assortment of video clips. Various other bolt-on packages are also available for service use over and beyond the bundle.
Vodafone has targeted what it described as ‘YAFs’ (young, active, fun) as the primary target for 3G Live, about 10 million of whom it hopes to attract to the service by March 2006. The company expects them to come largely from Live’s existing 2.5G subscriber base of around 130 million globally.
The choice to target these users first makes sense in light of their revenue-generating potential. Vodafone said Live subscribers deliver a 7% markup in average revenue per user compared with other segments. 3G Live is expected to add another 7% increment to that figure.
3G Live will launch in 13 countries around the world this month, either on Vodafone’s own local networks or through partner relationships. These include Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
