Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
A major reason why laptops aren't being marketed by
carriers using mobile data plans is because, unlike mobile phones and
voice, laptops and mobile data are not inextricably entwined.
Without a voice plan, a mobile phone is a useless
paperweight. There is simply no reason to buy a mobile phone unless you
buy a voice plan - the purchases are synonomous. Many consumers spend
more time choosing their voice plan than the phone. After the purchase,
in most cases the mobile phone becomes as indispensable to the owner as
the house keys and wallet. The phone goes wherever the owner goes.
Without a mobile data plan, a laptop is still a laptop. It can be
connected to the Internet via cable, DSL, a dial-up service or a
wireless network. Even without the Internet, a laptop is still a
computer that can be used to do wordprocessing, book-keeping, play
games or watch movies on a plane.
Unlike the mobile phone, however, a laptop is not an indispensable
accessory. It can be taken to work and taken home but it is often not
used in between. It is sometimes taken away on trips and connected to
the Internet in hotel rooms. Sales reps and and other types of road
warriors may need to do work from their laptop on the road using a
mobile data service but they're in the minority.
Many, if not most, laptop users have not even considered getting a
mobile data plan - they're still comparatively expensive and often
they're only used sporadically. Now that laptops are dropping in price
dramatically, the idea of committing yourself to an expensive three
year mobile data plan for the sake of not having to part with a few
hundred dollars up front seems nonsensical.
Of course, mobile data services will get cheaper, faster and more
reliable. One day they may even become a viable alternative to fixed
line broadband services. Maybe in time the desktop will become obsolete
and all the computing we ever do will done online in the cloud. Then
maybe it will make sense to bundle laptops with mobile data plans.
Until then, however, any carriers who think they can make a success out
of selling laptops for nothing up front are dreaming.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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