Should mobile operators run their own app stores?
There is a growing trend for network operators to get into the business of creating and selling content rather than just being the delivery channel.
One of the big themes at this year’s SATNAC – a telecommunications conference hosted annually by Telkom – was that telecoms companies needed to look at providing more than pipes for data to travel through if they were to remain viable.
Mobile operators like Vodafone and China Mobile have already started running their own mobile phone application (app) stores. It remains to be seen how well they compete against stores linked to the smartphone platforms from Apple, Google, Nokia, BlackBerry and Samsung.
Yaron Assabi, CEO of Digital Solutions Group, says that operators are actually better positioned than device manufacturers – they just need to make better use of that position.
Digital Solutions Group (DSG) is the company behind Digitalmall.com, mobile apps and widgets used by certain local operators, as well as horse racing and sports betting apps.
Operators have an advantage in that they know their customers, explained Assabi. Legal requirements in South Africa like RICA mean that operators have a lot of information with which they can do real customer experience management.
“Apps are a wonderful way of [managing customer experience],” said Assabi.
According to Assabi, operators just need to focus on the customers they already have. “Instead of being dumb pipes they can be very smart pipes,” he said.
Partnering with an operator allows you to build smarter applications, added Assabi. As an example Assabi described an application that would adapt its presentation layer depending on the speed at which a user is connected to the network.
Operators also have the option to zero-rate the connectivity for certain apps. This means they could for instance allow their customers to use services like Twitter and Facebook for free.
The best device manufacturers can do is to make apps available for free, Assabi said.
Assabi said that customer choice is going to dictate whether operator run stores give more platform or device specific app stores a run for their money.
Developer involvement is also an important adoption driver for new mobile app stores, Assabi added. Other app stores have been successful because of developer support. Without developers, there are no apps and if there are no apps, no customers will be interested in using the store.
With a lot of content and downloads are available for free, it’ll be the consumer who wins in the end, said Assabi.
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