Internationalisation of MVNO’s paves the way for niche mobile handsets
| Currently the MVNOs that are targeting small segments are still a relatively national phenomena. But as the use of segmentation matures, the market for segmented offers will internationalise, resulting in the different mobile market players leading to think globally and in global segments. The internationalisation process is slowly starting for mobile providers without their own network, with an increasing number of brands operating across multiple countries. Examples of this are Ay Yildiz, easymobile and Simyo etc. The internationalisation of mobile providers without their own network will result in these customers becoming international customers for the handset manufacturers, in the same way that many mobile operators are international customers. An internationalisation of segmented mobile offers is very important to handset manufacturers, as it increases handset sales volume by requiring the development, manufacturing and marketing of mobile handsets targeted at different segments. However neither the internationalisation of segmented offers nor the increase in sales of mobile handsets will be able to stop the downward spiralling number of sold mobile handsets per handset model, but the internationalisation will help slow down the decrease in sales. The handset manufacturers will therefore experience their scale-of-business being reduced over the coming years due to the many new handset model launches. Up to now, handset manufacturers have been very reluctant to develop, manufacture and market mobile handsets targeted at smaller segments, but with the internationalisation of segmented mobile offers, that incentive will increase, resulting in the development of an increasing number of different mobile handset models. The internationalisation of the segmented offers market will result in many new opportunities and challenges for the handset manufacturers and if the handset manufacturers understand how to take advantage of this, they can continue to maintain a central position in the future mobile value chain. |
| There is much more information about the handset manufacturers challenges in our latest report – How technology providers get success on the MVNO market – where the handset manufacturers future role in the mobile universe is thoroughly analysed. The report analyses the handset manufacturers’ challenges and examines in detail the possible changes that can be made in the handset manufacturers business models. |
