Apps: Don’t get mad, get even (As SingTel does)


Posted on July 15, 2010  /  0 Comments

Apps are referred to applications. And applications are no different than appliances. Buy your fridge, TV, air cooler, music system, toaster, iron, microwave oven or whatever. Bring them home, plug and play. You don’t give a damn to the power utility company. Just make sure your main connection can bear the load of power your appliances consume.

Mobile outfits are getting nervous at the meteoric rise of apps downloads. It’s poised to make their legacy VAS business redundant. In May we witnessed the VAS industry’s anger at the mobile operators in Pakistan. The operators have been allegedly taking them for a ride. Unfavorable revenue share and equitable access to the networks are the major complaints. A new regulatory headache?

Apps can bypass the networks and serve the consumers directly. It means – the mobile operators make no money from apps just the way power utility outfits earn nothing from the appliance retailers. “We don’t want to be a dumb pipe,” grumble the mobile outfits.

But do they have any choice? Not many but I can suggest two choices. First – be respectful to the apps developers and give them the fare share of your pie. Second – think local and structure your products accordingly, as SingTel has started. Nobody knows which one will really work. Yet, there is no harm in trying. If the dog can have its day, so does the underdogs of VAS. Cheers!

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