Research

Defining the future telco — and what it means for operators and their partners


Samsung and Google versus Apple?

Apple is weakening Samsung Electronics’ grip in the high-end of the handset market, lowering the Korean company’s profitability and capacity to compete effectively. After a series of largely unsuccessful attempts to break into software and services, a daring option for Samsung is to seek a strong, strategic alliance with Google to enable both companies to mount a serious challenge to Apple’s dominance in the affluent demographic. Telcos could back such an alliance in return for a profitable role in the service layer. This report analyses the strategic rationale for such an approach.

Consumer — December 2014

Five Principles for Disruptive Strategy

What is disruption, when is it a good idea, and what do you do when it happens to you? We illustrate five principles of disruptive strategy based on our analysis of the telecoms and adjacent markets over the past eight years. The analysis covers both principles of creating and defending against disruption.

Executive Briefing Service, Consumer — November 2014
Cloud: What is the role of telcos in cloud services in 2015?

Cloud: What is the role of telcos in cloud services in 2015?

Service providers need to grow new revenues. The cloud market looks potentially attractive, and is growing at about 30% CAGR, but it is dominated in many areas by Amazon, Google and Microsoft. So is Cloud part of the answer for telcos, and if so how? This report looks at the role of the service provider in the cloud market and products that service providers might offer in 2015.

Executive Briefing Service, Enterprise Platforms, Network Innovation — November 2014

Apple Pay & Weve Fail: A Wake Up Call

The unveiling of Apple Pay and unravelling of Weve (the UK operators’ payments venture) looked like bad news for telcos’ ambitions in mobile payments in some markets, and highlighted challenges to Google and others’ models. Yet there are already successful telco models and favourable market trends that telcos should exploit. So what are the opportunities now?

Executive Briefing Service, Consumer — September 2014
Connected Car: Key Trends, Players and Battlegrounds

Connected Car: Key Trends, Players and Battlegrounds

Connected cars are set to revolutionise the automotive industry as we know it, turning the car into the ‘ultimate mobile device’ and driving the growth of M2M in a big way. With Apple, Google, telcos and many others in the chase, we analyse the growth drivers, value chain, and key battles for control of this increasingly complex ecosystem, and outline a new connected car services framework.

Executive Briefing Service, Consumer — September 2014
Google’s Big, Big Data Battle

Google’s Big, Big Data Battle

Facing lockout from a growing chunk of the Internet and mounting competition from the Facebook-Microsoft alliance and Amazon, Google’s core business is under intense pressure. The search giant’s response is to innovate, offering consumers proactive recommendations, as well as reactive search results. Once an interesting sideline, Google Now has become fundamental to the Mountain View company’s future. Is the suggestion service good enough to maintain Google’s position as the world’s leading big data company?

Executive Briefing Service, Consumer — July 2014
Launchers: a new relevance point for telcos?

Launchers: a new relevance point for telcos?

A launcher is a customizable home screen for an Android device that allows users to reorganize, customize and interact with their device. Launchers are gaining popularity, with Facebook, Google, Twitter and Yahoo all having either acquired or developed their own versions, but the market is fragmented with different launchers providing different functionality, services and monetization methods. Our latest analysis shows how telcos should seek to explore this area to help them establish more relevance in the digital ecosystem.

Executive Briefing Service — July 2014
Faster than Facebook: how to speed up digital transformation and disruptive innovation

Faster than Facebook: how to speed up digital transformation and disruptive innovation

Digital transformation is now impacting every industry, and one of the hardest organisational challenges is developing small-scale innovations fast and managing them in large and mature organisations. Here are our recommendations and key findings from the OnFuture EMEA 2014 cross-industry brainstorm, including a summary of Facebook’s internal recipe for speedy success. (June 2014, Executive Briefing Service, Transformation Stream.)

Existing Business remains the biggest obstacle to innovation

Executive Briefing Service — June 2014
Next Generation Mobile Marketing & Commerce: OnFuture EMEA Executive Brainstorm 2014, Day Two (Thursday 12 June)

Next Generation Mobile Marketing & Commerce: OnFuture EMEA Executive Brainstorm 2014, Day Two (Thursday 12 June)

Next Generation Mobile Marketing & Commerce. Presentations and Voting Slides from the Next Generation Mobile Marketing & Commerce stream of the OnFuture EMEA Executive Brainstorm, 12th June 2014, in London. (Executive Briefing Service, Dealing with Disruption Stream.)
Next Generation Mobile Marketing & Commerce: OnFuture EMEA London June 2014

Executive Briefing Service, Consumer, Enterprise Platforms, Network Innovation — June 2014
Triple-Play in the USA: Infrastructure Pays Off

Triple-Play in the USA: Infrastructure Pays Off

Verizon and Comcast have invested in high bandwidth fibre and cable networks, whereas AT&T has until recently focused on U-Verse, an IPTV play. Which strategy is winning out and why? The answer is surprising and may transform the US and other markets, and there are parallels with Apple and Samsung’s ‘deep value’ strategies of investing in assets that are hard to replicate.

Executive Briefing Service, Network Innovation — May 2014
Telco 1.0: Death Slide Starts in Europe

Telco 1.0: Death Slide Starts in Europe

The latest results for Telefonica are grim, showing a 12% y-o-y revenue decline, following Orange and Deutsche Telekom’s 4% drops. This signals unequivocally that transformation is now a necessity not a luxury for European operators – and the rest of the world is not far behind. Longer term recovery is possible but not a certainty – what are the key steps? (May 2014, Foundation 2.0, Executive Briefing Service, Telco 2.0 Transformation Stream.)
Enterprise Mobility Framework December 2013

Executive Briefing Service — May 2014

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