London-based market research firm visiongain—which covers a variety of industries including defense, pharmaceutical, finance, and telecom—recently issues several reports examining different aspects of the mobile communications market.

 

The reports focused on mobile consumer e-mail, content convergence, quad-play FMC (fixed-mobile convergence) strategies for operators, and forecasts for the IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert) (IMS) market through 2012.

 

 

The IMS market forecast is the broadest of these reports, given that this technology—a 3GPP-managed architectural framework designed to wirelessly deliver IP multimedia services to users—promises to transform the telecommunications landscape significantly.

 

“Virtually every major telecom industry player must now be dealing with IMS,” visiongain noted in an announcement about the IMS report. “News of planned IMS-compatible products and services are arriving almost every day.”

 

The IMS report notes a number of industry trends, including that fact that companies such as Siemens Nokia (News - Alert) are going straight to enterprises with IMS-based systems, cutting carriers out of the picture. Operators in Western Europe, visiongain said, have been particularly enthusiastic about IMS.

 

Why all the excitement about IMS? Visiongain said that its popularity stems from the potential to increase operator ARPU (annual revenue per user) and reduce churn. It’s also because the technology is touted as being an open and strandardized architecture that can be used for both mobile and fixed services.

 

But, visiongain questioned just how open IMS is.

 

“IMS is one of the key drivers of convergence, but with network-client framework suppliers not reaching agreements then issues still linger,” visiongain said.

 

 

One of the things IMS can potentially deliver is a way for operators to offer fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) services. In a related report, visiongain also commented on the FMC space, outlining strategies carriers are likely to use during the next – years to incorporate FMC into quad-play service packages.

 

In the U.K., entertainment content provider Sky already has plans underway to introduce quad-play services. But, this company is competing with NTL’s bundled package that includes mobile, fixed-line, broadband and TV services; and with BT’s Vision offering—making success an uphill battle. Not that FMC and quad-play are unique to the U.K.; Italian operators, for example, are also looking to FMC to stay competitive.

 

“Service providers are increasingly looking at bundling as a means of reducing churn and increasing revenue,” visiongain noted in an announcement about its FMC report. “They hope to build on their success with two-play by deploying triple and quadruple play packages and offering increased services to their existing customer base.”

 

Among the topics covered in the report are these:

“Bundling has the potential to revive the fortunes of service providers if they develop packages that are in tune with their market segmentations,” visiongain noted. “However, these service providers also face significant hurdles along the way.”

 

 

On a more specific note, visiongain recently drilled down to report on how mobile operators in Europe are approaching mobile e-mail. The report’s conclusion is that if they’re being timid about mobile e-mail, operators are making a mistake.

 

Mobile e-mail holds much potential as a revenue source, but so far operators have struggled to gain traction with this service. Visiongain said there are several factors behind the struggle:

“In addition, operators are including e-mail in data packages, which prove unpopular with consumers due to the lack of clarity and perceived high costs,” visiongain noted in an announcement about its mobile e-mail report.

 

The report’s lead author, Adam Walkden, added: “Mobile operators are in a difficult position because of the importance of SMS revenues, particularly in Europe. However, we think that mobile email can generate additional revenues for operators because there will be different usage scenarios behind the two formats.”

 

Walkden additionally noted that e-mail remains popular, despite the proliferation of mobile devices in Western markets, which allow for other forms of communication. This presents a great opportunity to operators; if they can make e-mail accessible on mobile devices, that may attract subscribers who also will use the operator’s voice and SMS services.

 

Before that can happen, though, pricing issues need to be resolved.

 

 “Most email services are included in data packages, which the average subscriber tends to avoid,” Walkden said in a statement. “Consumers are used to bundled pricing packages for services such as SMS, so we believe such pricing options should be pursued with mobile email.”

 

Ease of configuration and use are also important factors for the success of consumer, mobile e-mail services.

 

Some service providers already are moving in the direct visiongain recommends. The research firm cited Seven Networks, Critical Path, and OZ Communications as three such examples. These companies “offer solutions that enable end-users to access existing email accounts from mass-market mobile devices.”

 

Also worth noting, visiongain said, are the offerings of Web-based e-mail providers Yahoo!, MSN, and Google (News - Alert); as well as handset manufacturers RIM, Nokia and Palm.

 

 

One reason why services like mobile e-mail are so important, visiongain said in another recent report, is that a shift is going on in the telecom industry: content is becoming more important than the means used to deliver it. This threatens to turn mobile operators into what visiongain calls “dumb bit pipes,” unless they can find a way to add value to their offerings.

 

“The move to this form of content convergence is being driven by factors such as a shift towards all-IP, embedded networking connectivity and consumer demand to have the ability to access the same content through multiple CE devices and platforms,” visiongain said in an announcement about its convergence report.

 

The battle between consumers and technology companies over content ownership is nothing new, the research firm noted; it’s been around for several years as the market has been undergoing a shift from device-centric to content-centric.

 

“It is the content that interests the market and the ability to retrieve and use that content across devices, networks and geographies that drives both innovation and profits, “ visiongain noted. The firm predicted that the digital home market will top 40 million U.S. households by 2010.

 

Visiongain analyst Pam Duffey had this to say about the trend described above: “A tidal wave of consumer demand for a fulfilment of the ‘anytime, anywhere’ promise is driving convergence forward. It is not that consumers seek additional functionality so much as they seek functionality that is useable anywhere they happen to be.”

 

Duffey added: “Industry slogans such as ‘anytime, anywhere’ further erode consumer confidence since such connectivity does not currently exist.”

 

There are signs of hope, though. Some operators, such as Vodafone, have shown interest in “placeshifting.” That company’s Mein PC, visiongain noted, “enables customers to use their 3G phones to access multimedia files that are stored on their home PCs.”

 

Another, similar option cited by visiongain is Sky TV’s remote record function, “where the recorded content will also be able to be transferred and viewed on the mobile device.”

 

Operators may fear that embracing placeshifting will erode their existing content distribution models, but visiongain said that if they don’t, there’s an even greater danger they will be left in the dust.

 

“Mobile operators are in serious danger of becoming dumb bit pipes,” Duffey said. “Those that understand that the market has shifted away from service/device centric to content centric will adapt and prosper through innovative combinations of converged content, device flexibility and deals with broadcasters.”