John Delaney
Vodafone UK launches the Mobile Internet
Vodafone UK has launched 'Vodafone Mobile Internet'. The Vodafone live! portal will now provide access to mobile-optimised, client-based implementations of some of the most popular services on the internet: Google, MySpace, YouTube, eBay, and instant messaging and email from Microsoft and Yahoo. As part of the package, Vodafone UK has also introduced new data tariffs, including a 'data pack' giving up to 120Mb of usage for £7.50 per month. Other customers will be charged per Kb, up to a maximum of £1 per day for 500Kb; with no further charge unless that day's usage exceeds 15Mb.Comment: Vodafone has always placed a greater emphasis than other European operators on the role of its portal, Vodafone live!, in the development of the mobile data market. A great deal of money has been invested in developing and marketing Vodafone live!, as the point of entry for Vodafone customers into the mobile internet. But although Vodafone live! has remained central to Vodafone's mobile data strategy, its role has evolved considerably over the years, in response to the evolution of the mobile data market from the closed, operator-centric model to the open, internet-centric model. Today's announcements mark a new phase in that evolution, and the keystone on which it is built is advertising revenue. Vodafone live! now carries display ads, so Vodafone wants its customers to carry on seeing the home page first, in an era during which it is becoming easier for customers to choose not to do that. So Vodafone live! has been turned into the launch point for a collection of the most sought-after services on the internet. By partnering with these brands, rather than simply saying ' you can do what you want', Vodafone has simultaneously positioned itself to give its customers a better experience of using internet services on their phones, and to continue participating in revenues from advertising when its customers leave the Vodafone portal for its partners' sites.We believe the strategy underlying Vodafone's Mobile Internet announcements is sound, because it focuses on maximising Vodafone's benefit from advertising. On the internet, advertising is the principal or sole source of revenue for application providers. As the distinction between 'the mobile internet' and 'the internet' fades, it is the advertising-funded model of services that will increasingly prevail when people use internet services on their mobile phones.The corollary of that is that data traffic revenues will be less prevalent, and thus we see Vodafone moving away from usage-related tariffing and towards flat-rate subscriptions. This path was followed in the UK first by T-Mobile with Web n Walk, and then by 3 with X-Series. These earlier tariffs are the obvious benchmarks against which Vodafone's will be judged - and Vodafone does seem to have given away an easy target for criticism here, by setting a cap of 120Mb on the flat-rate tarrif, compared with the 1Gb offered by its competitors. Vodafone expects hardly anyone to exceed the cap in practice, because of the rendering technology used. That being the case, surely it would have made sense in PR terms to set the cap much higher? The effect would have been the same, and the inevitable unfavourable comparisons could have been avoided.
