Mobile Working Experiences
The realities of remote working
Wednesday 14 November 2007, 10:04 PM
Vodafone - is the outlook as rosy as it seems?
Contrasting views on the mobile sector today...
Vodafone's share price has risen to almost £2 on the back of a very upbeat financial statement yesterday. After reporting the biggest corporate loss in history just 12 months ago they have turned this around to report a £4.6bn pre-tax profit in the first half of 06-07. True to say that the accountants have been juggling the figures and much of the change is due to a write down in assets that was performed last year. Nonetheless I am really pleased to see a UK origin operator producing an impressive return to form without having to change CEO like a premiership team changing manager.
A significant factor has been a dramatic surge in data revenues - up 45% year on year. Basically we all have embraced the mobile internet, we are plugging in our datacards in far away places and see mobile data as a jolly fine thing. Although there is one small cloud on the horizon that is not mentioned in today's FT report - the same EU legislation that has reduced voice revenues from roaming is set to be extended to data services so the revenues from international data use will reduce over the next 12-24 months.
Aside from Vodafone's accounts - the other interesting story in the FT today was from the head of China Mobile. He pinpointed a key emerging trend in the sector - the growing threat to operators from handset manufacturers and internet companies who will start to eat into the carrier's control of revenues. The launch of the iPhone, Google's Android platform and Nokia's own music store all show that these big players are no longer content to wait on the sidelines whilst the operators jostle for market share - 'if the mobile phone industry doesn't respond with highly competitive offerings they're going to watch their share of opportunity diminish..'
Are we set to see the mobile networks reduced to carriers - simply a conduit for traffic?
Which companies would you bet on having the most control over the future of mobile comms? O2? Vodafone? Nokia? Microsoft? or Google?
Vodafone's share price has risen to almost £2 on the back of a very upbeat financial statement yesterday. After reporting the biggest corporate loss in history just 12 months ago they have turned this around to report a £4.6bn pre-tax profit in the first half of 06-07. True to say that the accountants have been juggling the figures and much of the change is due to a write down in assets that was performed last year. Nonetheless I am really pleased to see a UK origin operator producing an impressive return to form without having to change CEO like a premiership team changing manager.
A significant factor has been a dramatic surge in data revenues - up 45% year on year. Basically we all have embraced the mobile internet, we are plugging in our datacards in far away places and see mobile data as a jolly fine thing. Although there is one small cloud on the horizon that is not mentioned in today's FT report - the same EU legislation that has reduced voice revenues from roaming is set to be extended to data services so the revenues from international data use will reduce over the next 12-24 months.
Aside from Vodafone's accounts - the other interesting story in the FT today was from the head of China Mobile. He pinpointed a key emerging trend in the sector - the growing threat to operators from handset manufacturers and internet companies who will start to eat into the carrier's control of revenues. The launch of the iPhone, Google's Android platform and Nokia's own music store all show that these big players are no longer content to wait on the sidelines whilst the operators jostle for market share - 'if the mobile phone industry doesn't respond with highly competitive offerings they're going to watch their share of opportunity diminish..'
Are we set to see the mobile networks reduced to carriers - simply a conduit for traffic?
Which companies would you bet on having the most control over the future of mobile comms? O2? Vodafone? Nokia? Microsoft? or Google?
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