mBlox, the world’s largest mobile transaction business, have just published some interesting research (registration required) about the world of off-portal, based on questioning 340 mobile users in the UK, France and Germany. An incredible 72% of people, who had previously purchased mobile content, didn’t know they could purchase it anywhere but from their operator. In other words, 72% of mobile literate consumers seem to be unaware of the off-portal world.
Of course, this is a small sample and many of these people may well have assumed that off-portal purchases were actually from their mobile operator. However, it does draw attention to an issue no one seems to be interested in addressing - that ordinary people with ordinary phones can surf the web from their mobiles, so who’s going to tell them?.
Alarming from the point of view of consumer protection, was the very low awareness among users that data charges would be charged in addition to the cost of the off-portal content. In fact, 74% of people fell into this category, which must concern operators, as well as content sellers alike, as a backlash seems pretty inevitable, at some point.
The solution, pioneered by mBlox and Vodafone in the UK was wholesale data packages, where content sellers can purchase data from the operator to package up with their content. This means that the user knows that the cost of the content is fixed and consists of a bundle of purchase price and delivery price.
Bearing in mind that operators will certainly bear the brunt of any backlash, from the public and regulators alike, it surprises me that more operators haven’t followed Vodafone’s lead. It certainly won’t be because mBlox and their competitors haven’t asked for it to be made available.
Obviously this research is a smart attempt by mBlox to highlight the issue of the need for wholesale data. But it’s nonetheless valid for all that. And while I appreciate the operators’ dilemma of making wholesale data available, essentially enables, or indeed promotes, a “competitive” channel, ignoring this important issue seems to me to be headed for trouble.
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apparently the Mblox/Vodafone wholesale data package didn’t work, and users were all charged their standard data rates. Which is nice.
so 72% of people had never see an ad to buy ringtones in the paper?!
[...] As reported, by MobHappy, 72% of the 340 people polled were unaware they could purchase content outside of their operator. Additionally, 74% didn’t know that data charges could could be brought to bear in addition to the cost of the content. This could result in backlash from consumers who realize how much extra they’re being charged. [...]