Helio, the US MVNO that’s a joint venture between SK Telecom and Earthlink, has launched today, and will begin selling its Kickflip (right) and Hero phones through its site and other channels. After the phones, the first thing that jumps out about Helio is the price — its lowest “All-In” package checks in a a seemingly steep $85 per month, though this does include 1000 voice minutes, free off-peak calls, and unlimited data and picture and text messaging (I’m sure many of our European readers would gladly pay $85 a month for all of that, though). Considering what other operators charge for all those separate elements, it’s really not so bad.
So obviously Helio’s not competing on price, but rather the services it offers. There’s the big MySpace mobile app you’ve probably heard about, its game platform which allows for some interesting options, and an idle-screen information service called “Helio on Top”, or HOT, — to which users will soon be able to add their own RSS feeds. There’s a lot of other nice touches, too — like OTA sync and backup of both contacts, as well as all the content a user’s bought. And since data is included in the All-In tariffs, charges for traffic aren’t a concern. That’s a big plus, and it will be interesting to see how the services grow and what premium services get offered, since traffic charges aren’t part of the equation.
What’s a little intriguing about Helio is that much more so than many other operators, its content and services show an understanding that the phone is a communications device more than anything — MySpace is a communications platform at its heart, and Helio also offers a number of messaging options other operators don’t, like higher size limits on videos, and support for multiple photos in a message. This is a point Helio CEO Sky Dayton emphasized when I met with him at CTIA last month, that mobile phones connect people to their friends, and the challenge for the operator is to figure out how media fits in — so, for instance, on its games platform, users can “gift” a friend a game, or they can “beg” for a friend to buy it for them.
The challenge for the company, then, is whether the niche market it’s aiming for is really big enough to support its prices — the same challenge facing other high-end MVNOs like ESPN Mobile and Amp’d (and for both, the answer appears to be no thus far). One interesting note along these lines is Helio’s Korean-language site — they’re targeting the natural ethnic niche as well, with Korean-language devices and sales materials in Koreatowns and online, which could prove a valuable tactic. I should be getting a Helio device to test here pretty shortly, and I’ll report back with some impressions.
[tags]helio, sk telecom, earthlink, myspace[/tags]
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