25 September 2009

The iPhone has attracted tremendous coverage throughout the media and has captured popular imagination. It’s hardly surprising – it’s a great device with some fabulous features. In addition to the evolution of the App Store model, the iPhone has had an impact on the wider smart-phone market, proving to be a catalyst for innovation as rival manufacturers strive to regain the initiative. And yet, in overall terms, while smart-phone sales continue to grow, they still represent a relatively small proportion of the handset market – around 10%, if our estimates are correct (we used comparative figures for 2007 from Gartner and Strategy Analytics). Notwithstanding growth since 2007, smart-phones are still in the minority.

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01 May 2009

According to a forthcoming report from Moriana Group, the average sales cycle for IMS related products is more than a year¹. Apparently, this is composed of about three months for a field trial, three months for a lab trial with the remaining six months presumably accounted for by various RFx activities. Since a wide range of vendors was surveyed, we can infer that the process is not limited to the largest Communications Service Providers (CSPs), which one might expect to have more bureaucratic processes, but extends to Tier 2 and other classes of CSP. So, it’s likely that this reflects the reality of the market. Yet this is in great contrast to the ambitions of CSPs, which generally include the aim to launch new services quickly in order to capitalise on new opportunities and satisfy customer demand.

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01 March 2009

Although Spring is on its way here in the Northern Hemisphere (yes, even this close to the Arctic Circle), green shoots sprouting in the global economy seem to be few and far between. Instead of searching for these, perhaps our thoughts should turn to lessons we have learnt from the recent turmoil and things we can do now to improve the situation without waiting for these elusive shoots to take hold.

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