"Beware the iPhone" - commentary

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 06 February 2007 13:52

IT Industry - Market

Mobile operators would do well to mark the warning given by a consulting firm that the iPhone could have a major impact on their businesses, but perhaps not quite for the reason it had in mind.

As Stuart Corner reported earlier today, ARCchart has warned mobile carriers that the iPhone has the potential to "consign them to simple connectivity providers."

Operators' branding efforts have gone for naught. By and large, people hate their operator. The operator is the one that sends them a bill each month, or that charges them to top-up. They blame the operator if a call drops out or they can't get a strong signal. They curse the operator when they run out of call credit.

When you talk to people about their handsets, they don't say "I've got a new Telstra/Optus/Vodafone/3/Virgin phone." They do proudly draw your attention to their new Nokia/Motorola/LG or whatever. (Sorry Sony Ericsson - I might be one of your customers, but it's been ages since someone showed off an SE phone to me.)

But then they complain loudly and to anyone that will listen once they discover that what should have been a standard feature of their phone has been disabled by the operator. A prime example is the way certain US carriers are notorious for preventing file transfers from a computer to the handset via Bluetooth.

Why do the carriers do that? To stop customers getting ringtones, games and so on through any channel other than over the air - which of course attracts a premium price. Never mind that it blocks functions that the operator probably doesn't provide, such as synchronising PDA-style information between the phone and a computer, or uploading photos to help you recognise the people you're scheduled to meet that day.

Who gets the blame?