Ian Sorek

The market for 2.5G and 3G services is taking shape as mobile providers offer customers capabilities that include Internet browsing, chat, multimedia downloads and online purchasing. These services promise to generate significant incremental revenue for providers, as customers embrace the next-generation mobile experience. They will also be important to other market beneficiaries - including content providers and online merchants - who see the affluent mobile user as an important target. To ensure the success of their 2.5G and 3G services, however, mobile providers have to grapple with three primary risk factors. First, they obviously have to ensure that the services they offer are the ones buyers want. Only by understanding customers' wants and needs can providers offer a portfolio of services that will generate the necessary take-rates to be profitable. Second, t... (more)