(keitai-l) Re: economist link

From: Gerhard Fasol <fasol_at_eurotechnology.com>
Date: 12/06/04
Message-ID: <41B44B17.9040106@eurotechnology.com>
Gustaf Alströmer wrote:
 > Remember that MMS for example is not a technology,
 > nor a service but a billing model

Gustaf,

Interesting, however this billing model is already obsolete
and on the way out in Japan:

Most European don't know, and the other night I surprised
to Vice-Presidents (!) of one of Europe's largest Telco/Mobile
operators here in Tokyo:

I can send 1 million MMS per day here in Tokyo with 2 Megapixel
pictures each and all it costs is about YEN 4000/month
(about EURO 30/month).

The extra cost of sending 100s of MMS is exactly zero to me.

Vodafone, finally also introduces the zero-cost MMS "billing model"
here in Japan after almost exactly 1 year delay - probably
not with the greatest enthousiasm either, and hoping it will
not spread too quickly from Japan to Europe.

It is only a question of time until the Japanese zero-cost MMS
model will come to Europe.

I think as more and more consumers in Europe understand that
SMS and MMS cost exactly zero in Japan, once the fixed data
rate is paid (about EURO30/month) they will also want to have
zero cost SMS and MMS. And once European consumers know how
much better email is than SMS and MMS, then they will want
to have email instead of SMS and MMS as in Japan today.

In my view, MMS is NOT a billing model - it is a brand.
However, as a brand, what does it stand for? An obsolute
way of sending pictures at high cost?

Gerhard

More about these business model issues in our 3G report:
free preview:  http://store.eSellerate.net/eurot/3gtrial
full report:   http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/3G/

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Gerhard Fasol, PhD                         Eurotechnology Japan K. K.
http://fasol.com/blog/                 http://www.eurotechnology.com/
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Received on Mon Dec 6 14:05:45 2004