Infocom Says Active Mobile Software Update Management Help Mobile Carriers Generate Revenues

Dec. 14, 2009 - PRLog -- Stuttgart, Germany and Manila, Philippines — According to one of InfoCom’s latest studies on the mobile market, the management of software updates for mobile phones not only bring value to the user, providing faster and improved software on its mobile phone, but may reveal as an additional revenue stream for the mobile carrier as well as produce positive effects on brand loyalty. Yet, this also applies to phone vendors, especially those targeting professional consumers (prosumers) and multimedia-oriented users. Especially Apple’s iPhone smartphone has set the benchmark on the marketing of updates.

“Carriers report some conflicts with phone manufacturers, related to the development of software upgrades or as regards the contact to end users”, an InfoCom’s Analyst located in Manila pointed out. InfoCom’s research shows that traditional end-device manufacturers have been reluctant, generally speaking, to promote firmware upgrade, as they prefer investing in the development of new phone models rather then devote resources in the further development of existing ones. But they are now increasingly using updates to get closer to their users.

The market is indeed changing: customers tend to keep their mobile phones longer and therefore, are more willing to run updates in order, for instance, to benefit from the latest innovation. “In Japan, mobile operators are quite advanced as regards software update management and use it effectively to generate new revenue streams”, the Analyst, who closely follows the Asian mobile markets since years, commented.

“In fact, in the next couple of years, vendors and carriers will compete more directly on customer loyalty. Many carriers and vendors have launched, or about to, mobile application stores. The next logical step is the update management”, the Analyst continued. “They have just started to understand the potential of efficient update management and they discover that the opportunities go far beyond simply fixing a security hole. Update management is soon to become a very exciting topic.”

InfoCom’s research investigates how market players use software updates to gain proximity to the end-user and helps to decipher how mobile carriers and vendors manage to create value with software update management.

About this research: This research investigates best and bad practices in the field of software update management and identifies how software update management can increase revenues and/or brand loyalty. InfoCom identifies the best software update management practices, how carriers benefit from them and how end-users react. InfoCom’s research activities go far beyond what is traditionally intended by telecom consultancy, covering also new telecom services and applications. If you wish to know more about it, do not hesitate to contact us.

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InfoCom is a market research and consultancy company with over 20 years experience providing strategic analyses and planning assistance to stakeholders in the telecommunications, IT and multimedia industries. InfoCom GmbH’s independent and fact-based analyses highlight trends and opportunities, supporting decision makers to understand market dynamics in order to improve their competitive advantage.