Eating MNOs' Lunch

A service. Something absolutely central being offered by MNOs (Mobile Network Operators) for years. A handset - delivered by a hardware vendor was nothing without the wireless service. A SIM card - the soul being put in the body of a handset wakes it up and connects to the network, offering services - voice calls, text messaging and data transmission. Possibly more. many more, but these three are essential and cover probably more than 99% of use scenarios. It was like that fifteen years ago. Or even ten years ago. But times are changing. Advances in hardware platforms, like faster processors, larger screens with much higher resolution, lots of storage memory enable new use scenarios. We use our mobile phones to snap photos, listen to music, play games. Our address books are hundreds entries long. We want social networking, content sharing, shopping and other services. yes, they are available from third parties. Some ecosystems (read: Apple / iPhone) deliver all in the box. What would an iPhone be without iTunes? Other vendors are following: look at the avalanche of application stores announced recently at the Mobile World Congress by handset vendors. Where are the MNO's? Asleep?

Phone backup and configuration is one of the killer apps MNO's should provide in the first place. I put a lot of effort entering all that data and metadata into the phone. The first thing I want to be sure is this effort is not lost when my phone is lost or when it falls into the toilet (yes, it happens...). So first there was ZYB, and it stood out there for years until Vodafone realized it's real value and potential of "stickiness". Then was Apple, with iTunes being central to their strategy of keeping users tied to the platform. It is not that easy to give up iPod or iPhone and switch to another platform without losing the content (data - purchased songs, and metadata - playlists etc.). Retention. This was the idea behind the original concept of a SIM card. SIM belongs to the MNO and holds all user's data. A subscriber is free to switch / upgrade the phone, data is retained on a card. The upgrade process is seamless and the subscriber stays with the MNO. Should she prefer to switch to another MNO, she gets a new EMPTY SIM card. Quite a barrier...

But what a SIM card holds now? Almost nothing... Just a few configuration details, the rest is stored in the handset's memory. So an upgrade usually requires retyping everything or implementing some sort of data transfer mechanism on your own (like using a PC to temporarily store the data - contacts, calendars, photos, songs...). MNO's lost the opportunity, while handset vendors (or more precisely: handset OS vendors) are taking advantage of. Apple was the first mover. Microsoft has just recently announced the My Phone service. Blackberry have had it for years. They all increase platform stickiness... Upgrade from a 2G iPhone to the 3G iPhone. From one Windows Mobile device to the new one. Easy. But do not even think of switching to another platform. This is what MNO's should have mastered. But they lost the game.