http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/03/03/selling-dollars-for-a-dime/ Russell Buckley and Carlo Longino on mobile technology. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:31:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/03/03/selling-dollars-for-a-dime/comment-page-1/#comment-2045 MocoNews.net: mobile content news Sun, 05 Mar 2006 20:19:16 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/03/03/selling-dollars-for-a-dime/#comment-2045 [...] Amp’d is promoting its content by offering three months of unlimited calling minutes to subscribers who sign up for its $15 per month Amp’d Live 20-channel video plan. The unlimited voice plan normally costs $150 per month…”The promotional offer, which does not include international calling, is available to any customer who signs up for an Amp’d calling plan for $50 or more per month, then adds the Amp’d Overload video service.” Carlo at MobHappy is unimpressed with the promotion: “Giving away service “worth” $450 to get people to pay $15 a month doesn’t sound like such a great idea, and would make you think they‚Äôre not attracting too many subscribers.” It’s a good point (even if you substract the $50 for the calling plan, it’s still $300 “lost”). There are two benefits I can see to Amp’d doing this. First, if people get used to unlimited calls because they’re free they are likely to get used to talking a lot on their mobile, which means they’re likely to need a higher plan when the promotion ends. This is a fairly standard trick and has been around for a while. The other benefit is that it introduces people to Amp’d’s content — which is its main differentiating factor. People don’t say to their friends “hey, use my phone to call somebody and notice the great voice quality” but they do say “hey, look at this video of a gnarly twist on the half-pipe” (or words to that effect: I’m not a skater). So the more content people use the more word-of-mouth goes around. Carlo’s right though — it does sound like Amp’d is throwing a lot of money at consumers to get them to sign up and use content. Related stories: –Amp’d Mobile to Premiere Movie Trailer –Amp’d Goes With Novarra For Web Browsing –Amp’d To Close Another $100 Million Funding [...] [...] Amp’d is promoting its content by offering three months of unlimited calling minutes to subscribers who sign up for its $15 per month Amp’d Live 20-channel video plan. The unlimited voice plan normally costs $150 per month…”The promotional offer, which does not include international calling, is available to any customer who signs up for an Amp’d calling plan for $50 or more per month, then adds the Amp’d Overload video service.” Carlo at MobHappy is unimpressed with the promotion: “Giving away service “worth” $450 to get people to pay $15 a month doesn’t sound like such a great idea, and would make you think they‚Äôre not attracting too many subscribers.” It’s a good point (even if you substract the $50 for the calling plan, it’s still $300 “lost”). There are two benefits I can see to Amp’d doing this. First, if people get used to unlimited calls because they’re free they are likely to get used to talking a lot on their mobile, which means they’re likely to need a higher plan when the promotion ends. This is a fairly standard trick and has been around for a while. The other benefit is that it introduces people to Amp’d’s content — which is its main differentiating factor. People don’t say to their friends “hey, use my phone to call somebody and notice the great voice quality” but they do say “hey, look at this video of a gnarly twist on the half-pipe” (or words to that effect: I’m not a skater). So the more content people use the more word-of-mouth goes around. Carlo’s right though — it does sound like Amp’d is throwing a lot of money at consumers to get them to sign up and use content. Related stories: –Amp’d Mobile to Premiere Movie Trailer –Amp’d Goes With Novarra For Web Browsing –Amp’d To Close Another $100 Million Funding [...]

]]> http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/03/03/selling-dollars-for-a-dime/comment-page-1/#comment-2037 James Quintana Pearce Sat, 04 Mar 2006 17:42:00 +0000 http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/03/03/selling-dollars-for-a-dime/#comment-2037 That depends...if people take up the offer they'll get used to unlimited calls, which means they're more likely to "require" the highend plan, or at least a plan higher than the one they were originally going to be on. That depends…if people take up the offer they’ll get used to unlimited calls, which means they’re more likely to “require” the highend plan, or at least a plan higher than the one they were originally going to be on.

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