Once again, J.D. Power just announced their award for wireless purchase experience, and, once again, for the 9th consecutive time, AT&T Mobility wins. Also, MetroPCS wins for non-contract, full-service carriers and Consumer Cellular wins for non-contract value carriers. And, at the same time, AT&T debuted their new retail store design focused on entertainment to provide the connection and content that customers want today.
Buying wireless and telecom is getting more complicated all the time with all the new, innovative technologies and offerings every carrier has. That’s where the store comes into play. Walk into a store and they can sit down with you and explain all they offer, answer your questions and help you make the best choices for you.
Retail stores are changing their focus as the industry keeps expanding. Yesterday, wireless stores were just for wireless services. Today, stores are for every product and service the company offers. And that list continues to expand.
AT&T announced new retail store design focused on entertainment
Now, AT&T started their next wave of store upgrades. A few years ago, they expanded from mobile only to start including other services and equipment from wireless to wire line. Now they are further expanding the store to include entertainment services as they are moving toward their expansion into the entertainment world.
AT&T has always led the way in the redesign of their stores. Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile are also rushing to update their stores as well. In fact, if you pull the camera back we can see other companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Comcast, Charter and others doing the same thing.
The purpose is to provide a place for the customer to visit and shop for all the company’s services. To help cut through the confusion, increase customer satisfaction and increase sales.
This is the path AT&T has been on for years and I expect this trend to continue to grow after the Time Warner merger is complete. Their move into entertainment is the next, big growth wave. This will be good for AT&T and will force competitors to rush to keep up to speed as they are today.
AT&T DirectTV NOW, wireless TV, mobile TV
AT&T has been rapidly transforming and expanding their business. A couple years ago they acquired DirecTV, created new services like DirecTV NOW which gives customers more choices and decreases costs. They started wireless TV or mobile TV which lets users watch TV over the AT&T Mobility network using their smartphones, tablets or computers.
This growth has forced competitors to get back into the changing and expanding game. Comcast Xfinity Mobile just launched their wireless service. Charter is expected to do so next year. Verizon is also preparing their answer to the wireless TV challenge.
Today, AT&T is no longer just a phone company. They are creating the next, big fireball of growth for the next decade and beyond. They are still leaders in wireless, telecom and Internet, but now are expanding into pay TV and entertainment. And they are starting to be followed by top competitors.
AT&T Time Warner like Comcast NBC
This is the new industry direction. After the Time Warner acquisition is complete they will also be a powerhouse in entertainment content. This is very similar to what Comcast did with their merger with NBC Universal. This is the new direction the entire industry is heading.
Comcast leads from the cable television side and AT&T leads from the telephone side. However, all competitors will come together in the middle, in the new marketplace and compete with each other. And that’s the exciting part of this new trend.
This is the same direction Verizon is heading with their acquisition of AOL and Yahoo. They are restructuring their wireless company to be more like an Amazon.com type model. They will sell products from vendors to customers. This is not the same content model as AT&T or Comcast, but it is another way the industry is shifting.
So, congratulations to AT&T for another great year with the JD Power award, and to expanding their retail stores to focus on the world of entertainment. The wireless and telecom world used to be all about wireless and telecom, but going forward that world is expanding to entertainment. In that new world, AT&T transforming themselves for growth during the next decade.
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