Mobile Operator Chief Calls For More Affordable Smartphones
May 02 2012 - 10:09AM
Dow Jones News
The chief executive of the U.K.'s biggest mobile operator by
revenue, Everything Everywhere Ltd., Wednesday called on
mobile-phone makers to produce cheaper smartphones for consumers
that can't afford more pricey devices.
Olaf Swantee said there are "a lot of devices all sitting at the
high-end of the product range" such as Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone
and the Samsung Electronics Co.' (005930.SE) Galaxy range at the
moment, but there are only a few at the lower-end of the
market.
Swantee thinks it is an area that Nokia Corp. (NOK) and others
could exploit, noting that Nokia has a very strong position in the
mid-range device market. Early indications for the latest
smartphone from Taiwan's HTC Corp. have been "positive", he told
Dow Jones Newswires.
Everything Everywhere, which runs the Orange and T-Mobile mobile
brands in the U.K., said Wednesday that it added 151,000 contract
customers in the first quarter ended March 31 from a year earlier
as management focus on adding more customers on contracts as they
are more profitable and less likely to leave.
Nearly half of the operator's 27.2 million customers on
contracts generated five times more average revenue per user than
prepaid customers.
However, service revenue was down 2.5% to GBP1.50 billion in the
first quarter due to the impact of regulated cuts to mobile
termination rates.
Excluding MTR, service revenue was up 2.9% in the first-quarter
due to solid customer demand for smartphones. That compares with a
1.2% rise in the fourth-quarter of 2011.
Everything Everywhere was created in July 2010 through the
merger of the U.K. businesses of Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE.XE) and
France Telecom (FTE).
-By Lilly Vitorovich, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-0-207 842 9290;
lilly.vitorovich@dowjones.com
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