Wireless Portals Will Provide Operators with Key Competitive Edge in Europe, The Strategis Group Reports
By the end of 2000, there will be approximately 16.7 million wireless portal end-users in Europe’s top 15 markets, according to a new study released by The Strategis Group. The study, European Wireless Portals: Strategies & Market Positioning, states that the end-of-year holiday season is expected to boost handset upgrades, and therefore portal activity, substantially.
“The level of freedom and the choice of services available via the portal will be key factors in the differentiation of one cellular operator’s offering from that of their competitors, in what is set to become a highly competitive marketplace,” commented Jamie Moss, Telecoms Analyst at The Strategis Group.
The Strategis Group discovered a variety of factors driving European wireless portal market, including:
- Handset vendors announcing that all future models are to be WAP-enabled
- Operators adopting increasingly aggressive promotions and marketing strategies to encourage end-users to upgrade their handsets
- Further upgrades of WAP to support enhanced graphics and animations
- The earlier-than-anticipated commercial deployment of 2.5G and 3G infrastructure and handsets (typically 2002/3).
As a consequence, by 2005, the number of portal end-users should top 183.7 million.
“Portal-based services are very much about the personalization of the end-user’s experience -- to give added functionality and relevance to their ownership of a mobile phone,” said Jake Saunders, Regional Director at The Strategis Group Europe. "Internet-savvy wireless end-users will not want to be restricted unnecessarily and will desire access to localized content, no matter where they are."
The Strategis Group’s portal research also indicates that cellular operators will launch portal-based applications for use by any cellular phone user, scrapping the previously used “walled garden” content model, which restricts subscribers’ access to third party portals.
The Strategis Group’s new report details more than 80 key players and pioneering companies currently positioning themselves to stake-out a piece of emerging wireless portal marketplace. Companies profiled include cellular operators, content providers, fixed-line portals and infrastructure vendors. In addition, European Wireless Portals: Strategies & Market Positioning provides wireless portal end-user penetration rates for Europe’s top 15 markets, from the year 2000 until 2005.
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