Next Generation Wireless Applications: Creating Mobile Applications in a Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 World, 2nd Edition

3.7 WHICH APPLICATIONS SHOULD AN OPERATOR DEPLOY?

Thus far, in this chapter, I have looked at ways in which software vendors can tackle the mobile applications market. A major channel for such vendors to consider is the operator market, as we have just discussed. Now I want to look at the question of which applications to deploy, which is an operator question. Of course, the answer is moving all the time, so this will just be a snapshot, although, as you will see, I shall attempt to break the problem down into categories of applications; thus, enabling some general principles to be established. In this section, I shall mostly be looking at the problem from the perspective of relatively mature operators. However, many of the issues covered still apply anyway to less mature operators.

3.7.1 The Market Challenges

What are the market conditions that operators face in mature markets? They can be summarised in three ways:

1. Declining subscriber growth (market saturation)
2. Falling ARPU (due to increased price pressure)
3. Evolving market (due to convergence, Internet threats, etc.)

Facing these market conditions, the major challenges facing operators are essentially four-fold:

1. Securing new revenue, or growing their share of the consumer wallet
2. Mitigating against churn, or creating service/brand stickiness
3. Increasing agility and innovation, or rapid deployment of new services and service variants
4. Developing new business models in the face of uncertainty and high risk

Given these challenges, ...