News
Vodafone preparing massive re-launch of content and services
Tim Green May 28 2008, 11:57am
Comments (1)
Vodafone is working on a radical revamp of its mobile internet and content strategy, ME has learned.
Sources say that the company is working towards a dramatic new approach that will be launched to consumers by April next year. The strategy is being masterminded Pieter Knook, who moved from Microsoft earlier this year to head up Voda’s newly formed internet services unit.
Details of the re-launch are sketchy – ME believes an internal presentation only took place last week – but we’ve been told it will be a vigorous riposte to the entry into the space by Google, Apple and Nokia. Deaprting CEO Arun Sarin has talked in the past about Voda not becoming a dumb pipe. Perhaps this is his parting shot.
Voda is currently expanding its Group Services team to prepare for the launch. This is significant as the firm dramatically culled the same unit around 18 months ago, resulting in the departure of very big names such as Graeme Ferguson, Lee Fenton and Tim Harrison. It even came close to closing Group Services completely.
It’s also rumoured that Voda will complement this internal growth with acquisitions. The firm agreed to pay £25m for Zyb, a Danish social networking company, earlier this month. More similar deals are expected.
Comments
“Other operators will soon follow”
Posted by: Jeremy Kagan - Jun 2, 2:04pm
It is very heartening to see Vodafone beginning to address this issue of the crumbling walled gardens. With consumers surfing the web and leaving their operators' portals, there is pressing need for a solution to monetize the open web. Otherwise, all of the investment in the latest billing infrastructure will only address a shrinking market.
The Tele Management Forum has begun to address this issue as well. At the TM Forum event in Nice last week (3,600 registered visitors from Tier 1 Telcos and their support system vendors), we got a very warm reception to my company's innovative model and vision for solving this issue painlessly and highly profitably.