Archive for 2010

Mobile centres to rival Tesco after collapse of Orange concessions trial

Asda is poised to launch its own phone shops in a bid to rival Tesco and Carphone Warehouse after its concessions deal with Orange collapsed last month.

The retail giant is planning to roll out in-store Asda mobile centres selling both prepaid and contract handsets on a range of networks. One Asda source told Mobile: ‘Rather than just offering Orange concessions, Asda wants to open mobile centres in store a bit like Carphone Warehouse stores which will include a number of operators, like Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, all within a mobile phone centre.’

The news comes just weeks after trials of two Orange concessions at Asda collapsed. Sources said the two concessions at Asda’s Manchester and Milton Keynes superstores delivered little additional footfall for Asda and poor returns for Orange. Staff at the Manchester Eastlands store told Mobile: ‘Orange just wasn¹t selling very much so the trial was stopped a month ago.’

One source at the Milton Keynes store added: ‘Orange and Asda failed to come to an agreement about reletting the concession space after our store refit was completed so the trial was ended.’ It is thought that the mobile centres will be placed in all 36 Asda supercentres first, with the possibility of a further roll out across its 320 smaller stores.

Industry sources said Asda’s move mirrors its supermarket rival Tesco’s mobile strategy. CCS Insight MD Shaun Collins said: ‘This does not surprise me. Walmart is big in the mobile sector in the US and this will be a competitive reaction to Tesco.’

‘Mobile is one of the fastest growing sectors in the marketplace and one which pulls people in store. It is strategically important to Asda as part of its non-grocer strategy.’ An Orange spokeswoman said: ‘Our pilot has been finalised and we are now reviewing how to strongly position our two brands in Asda.’

Shorter term contracts have doubled from 11% to 22%, according to GfK

Sales of 12 month Sim-only deals are rocketing, according to analyst firm GfK. Latest figures from GfK’s retail and technology division show that take up of 12 month Sim-only contracts doubled from 11% to 22% between January and May this year.
GfK senior account manager Cedric Mertes said: ‘When we looked at the contract Sim segment, we saw amazing growth of the 12 months area – 11% in Jan to 22% in May – which shows that customers are obviously keen to commit for a shorter period of time.’
Mertes said the figures indicate that 12 month Sim-only contracts are attracting consumers who are happy to keep their existing phones rather than migrate at the end of their contracts to the latest handsets.
The rise is also partly due to operators attempting to retain customers who are reluctant to sign up to 24 month contracts, said Mertes.
‘Operators are pushing 24 month contracts as they look to keep customers on their networks for longer, but at the same time they don’t want to lose those customers who don’t want to be tied in for that long, or who aren’t as interested in the new handsets. So a lot of operators are now offering 12 month Sim-only deals.’
Mertes said iPhone users could also be driving the rise in the 12 month deals.
‘It is possible that operators have launched some 12 month Sim-only deals for iPhone users coming to the end of their 18 month contract who are happy to carry on using the model they have.’
Neil Mawston, analyst at Strategy Analytics, said he expects the rise in Sim-only deals to slow down.
‘Sim-only deals have been growing in the past couple of years. For operators they mean lower acquisition costs and subsidies but as they also increase the potential for churn, Sim-only can be a double edged sword.
However, I think it is coming close to its peak – there is only so much of the market that is going to take on these deals and then you will see operators encouraging their Sim-only customers onto 18 and 24 month deals – it’s cyclical.’

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Little iPhone pic that made me smile

iPhone 4 Bumper Giveaway to Cost $175 million

To sort out the antenna problem with the iPhone 4, Apple is giving away free bumpers to all iPhone 4 owners. But as they don’t just appear out of thin air, Apple is going to set aside $175 million of iPhone 4 revenue in the September quarter, according to Apple’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer during the Q3 earnings conference call. But as in the same conference call they reveiled that they earned over $15 billion, shelling out $175 million for iPhone cases, won’t be too much of a catastrophe for Apple.

The $175 million might seem a huge amount for normal people like us, but compered the $1.5 billion Apple would have to pay for a full recall of the iPhone 4 as some industry analysts are predicting, giving away free cases is a much better option for Apple.

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