Editor’s Note: With 2015 now upon us, RCR Wireless News has gathered predictions from leading industry analysts and executives on what they expect to see in the new year.
As the grip of smart mobile devices grows tighter on our daily lives, market expectations have continued to increase. Having Internet access and a touch-screen device is no longer innovative. In order to stay competitive in an incredibly fast-paced industry, the world’s largest device manufacturers are being pressured to think outside the box when approaching device improvements, creating new features and determining pricing.
Here are five predictions for the mobile industry in 2015:
1. As the wireless network carriers compete for customers, the evolution – and ultimate consolidation – of the industry will ensue.
Carriers have already long been at war with each other and have employed several strategies including aggressive trade-in programs, price cutting, extensive global service offerings and cloud adoption. But now, to remain competitive, network carriers will most likely begin to acquire each other and consolidate, increasing their customer base and combining their resources. These carriers will strive to bring triple- and quadruple-play technologies and wrangle away relevance from ecosystem dominators such as Android and Apple and move to OEM agnostic.
2. As feature phone sales fall worldwide, OEMs will invest in more advanced smartphones, wearables and other networked devices to drive revenue.
Because feature phones have now permeated the mobile market on a global scale, manufacturers like Apple, Google, Samsung and Motorola will be more active in smartphone innovation and exploring alternative connected devices, such as wearables and home automation technologies. This will allow OEMs to establish tangible and technological differentiators among competitors while maintaining some of their brand individuality. While an existing presence of wearables has been established, adoption has not exactly taken off as expected. However, this will most likely change in the next year due to an increased focus on additional networked devices.
3. There will be a rise of low-cost smartphones, especially from Chinese manufacturers in emerging countries.
As smartphones become more commonplace in the industry, pricing has become increasingly competitive. In response, smartphones that are low-cost but still high-quality from international manufacturers, particularly China, will become more prevalent among consumers. With domestic production and consumption, these OEMs have the scale and financial strengths to expand into new markets around the world.
4. With the abundance of manufacturers competing for market share, there will be an increased focus on customer care services as a differentiator.
As mentioned previously, mobile device hardware innovation has begun to plateau and smartphone models have begun to look more and more alike, leading OEMs to re-examine different facets of their business model, namely customer care services and after-sales support. Customer care will prove to be an increasingly important differentiator in brand definition for major manufacturers and will continue to play a key role in customer loyalty.
5. Although 2-3 operating systems will remain (e.g. Android, iOS, Windows, etc.), there will be a standardization of mobile apps.
With the standardization of mobile apps, consumers will gain access to all their favorite apps regardless of their device’s operating system. While consumers will still have operating system preferences, this standardization will lead to increased success in individual apps as well as overall device sales. Without worrying about restricted access to particular mobile apps due to operating systems, customers will be able to select devices based on more concrete differentiators like hardware innovations, software features and customer service offerings.
As CEO, Thomas Berlemann leads B2X and continues to strengthen the company’s market leadership and rapid growth through a relentless focus on customer success and innovation to become the go-to company for customer care worldwide. An industry expert of the telecommunications sector with more than 25 years’ experience, Berlemann held management positions in various companies, including Mannesmann, Multichannel Retailer – OTTO and AOL Europe, before joining T-Mobile Germany as director of customer service. Within Deutsche Telekom, he most recently served as CEO of T-Mobile Netherlands. Berlemann holds a marketing degree from the University of Applied Sciences Rendsburg.
